no. 10899 

LIBEARY 

OF THE 

DEPARTMENT OF STATE. 



Alcove, ... 




Gass d feizs 






b 



THE 



ADJUSTED CONSTITUTION 



OF 



MASSACHUSETTS 



ANNULLED AND FULFILLED PARTS 
DROPPED 

AMENDMENTS EMBODIED WITH THE 
ORIGINAL ARTICLES 



EDITED BY 

J. NELSON TRASK 



BOSTON 
THE EDITOR 

1884 



Copyright, 1883, by J. Nelson Trask. 




HEADINGS 



Foretalk, with subheads of aim, need, plan, 

history and others . . . . page iii. 

Effects of Amendments " xiii. 

Sayings, of the state, law, obedience . . " xv- 

Mayflower Constitution . . . " xvi. 

Preamble " 1 

Adjusted Constitution, even pages " 2 

Original Constitution, odd pages . . . " 3 

Parts left out in Adjusting .-..." 125 

Headings of original Constitution . . a 128 

Abbreviations] "128 

Index u 129 



Fress of David Clapp & Son. 



FORETALK. 



AIM. 



This book undertakes to make plain what the live, work- 
ing parts of the constitution of Massachusetts are. It aims 
to be useful to seekers of simplicity, brevity, clearness : to 
movers of just and needful statutes : to lovers of clean politics 
and good citizenship in this commonwealth. It would gladly 
be a convenience to professional men, to teachers and youths; 
but would especially be a help to the earnest citizen, old or 
young, whose foster mother has been the public school, and 
whose diploma is his good behavior. It is not a bonanza; 
does not expect to sail in financial fair weather. It does in- 
deed bear riches : the riches of the greatest laws made by 
the state ; but the state's boundaries enclose the people who 
will read the book. 

NEED. 

Let anybody not familiar with the constitution try to find 
quickly all the laws touching voters, all affecting representa- 
tives or senators, the management of elections, the filling of 
executive and council vacancies ; and he will not, with great 
emphasis, bless the tangle in which the state's text benets 
him, with its original articles and amendments crossing, 
intertwisting, doubling back upon each other, while one 
annuls another and some become obsolete by their whole 
fulfilment. The common text is the despair of a busy 
man. The index helps ; but who knows that the index is 
exhaustive? By the twentieth amendment, however, " No 



IV FORETALK. 

person," with a few exceptions, " shall have the right to 
vote, nor be eligible to office under the constitution of this 
commonwealth, who shall not be able to read the constitution 
in the English language." This book, then, is meant to for- 
ward good citizenship by giving connectedly the great laws 
which can be made by the citizens only, which stand on their 
authority, are made for them, and which they are expected 
by their own law to know how to read. Again, in the code 
book of Massachusetts, 1882, the constitution of the United 
States takes up but ten pages : in the same type the consti- 
tution of the state occupies nearly thrice as many, twenty- 
eight. The national constitution, if it does not deal with 
fewer topics, touches them with a readier, terser hand; 
but, being eight years younger in adoption, it had the 
Massachusetts form to improve upon. The Massachusetts 
constitution goes more into details. Its worst fault is 
complexity; but the annulled and useless matter is con- 
siderable, nearly fifteen pages of the blue book, wherein 
the dead parts of the twelfth and thirteenth amendments 
cover almost three pages; and the printing of such matter 
from year to year wastes the state's money, wastes the reader's 
time and patience, hinders men's knowing readily the constitu- 
tion of their state. The convention of 1779, in its address to the 
people, March 2, 1780, said well, "To balance the powers 
of government accurately requires the highest skill in politi- 
cal architecture " ; but the building should not be made to 
carry always the stagings of the first builders with the chips 
of those who have stopped leaks and put on additions. The 
revisers in 1853 saw this fact, although the constitution then 
had but thirteen of its twenty eight amendments ; and they 
said, " It is only by careful and critical analysis and com- 
parison that the existing provisions can be determined. This 
ought not to be." 

OBEY OB SUFFER. 

The good citizen means to behave himself in society and 
in the state. Laws are mostly to restrain and punish bad 
citizens and social parasities; but the good citizen is human: 
lie makes mistakes. He is therefore answerable to the com- 



FORETALK. V 

mon or unwritten laws of his country, to the statutes of the 
state and of the nation, to the constitution of the state, and 
of the United States, He may hold that his Bible is the 
highest of all laws written and unwritten : that constitutions 
and codes are children, and children only, of the Bible. He 
may hold to the notion of the higher law, that his conscience 
is, for himself, the highest law. True and strong men have 
held both of these beliefs. Conscience, however, is not in- 
fallible: it may be ill informed, or may be far lower in one 
place or person than in another ; and the best followers of 
conscience, like other men, have only this choice at last, to 
obey the laws of the land or to suffer for breaking them. 
The good citizen will, in a strait, suffer anything for con- 
science; but the good citizen will not make an emergency 
nor put himself into a strait merely for an occasion to suffer. 
Let especially the great and general laws be plain to all 
persons for knowledge and guidance and safety. 

PLAN. 

The adjusted text, on the left or even pages, brings the 
side words and citations regularly upon the left border. It 
is paragraphed throughout. Each paragraph shows within 
curves the j^ear in which its substance became law ; and the 
number 1780 marks the parts of the body of the constitution. 
When an amendment is embodied with these parts, its num- 
ber in the order of adoption stands before its year number. 
At the head of each page is an inruled line of Roman num- 
bers, which refer to the articles, amendments, sections and 
chapters of the original constitution as the state prints it; 
and mostly in the strict order of the paragraphs. Often the 
original article is opposite a given paragraph, or within a 
few pages of it. 

The original constitution, with all its amendments, takes 
up the odd pages. The first ample heading is dropped to 
bring the preamble upon one page. After the preamble, the 
full headings are displayed; and, though on smaller pages, 
the state's form is meant to be exactly reproduced throughout, 
in words, capitals, punctuation. It passes the end of the 
other text, and then takes up every page. The brackets, as 



VI FOBETALK. 

in the blue book, show what parts have been annulled by 
amendments. Thorough oppositeness, however desirable? 
was not practicable ; because, in the other text, the amend- 
ments were not kept separate. 

After the original text, is a close statement of the parts 
dropped from it in shaping the adjustment. Reference num- 
bers show where each part is found. The editor will be 
glad to receive a clear statement, plainly written, of any error 
or omission in any part of the book. 

AUTHORITY. 

The legislature may at its next session alter or repeal 
statutes made at the last session: may, as it did Nov. 19, 
1881, codify the statutes when they become too numerous, 
mixed or unwieldy ; but can not codify nor alter the constitu- 
tion : only the voters of the state, at the polls, where they 
make the legislature itself, can give binding authority to a 
change in the constitution. This adjustment, therefore, 
however convenient and helpful, claims no authority but its 
truthfulness in giving the operative parts of the constitution. 
So far as it is correct and trustworthy, it has been ratified in 
substance; but not in form. 

CHANGES. 

A constitution naturally has a law flavor ; but should no 
more be darkened with technical bar terms than with those 
of the hospital or of the divinity school. The folk's law 
should be in the folk's English. Not much of orotund 
magniloquence got into it ; but some articles are wordy with 
the mixing of kindred terms (as in Rights, article xxiii; 
constitution, ch. ii, sec. i, art. vii). The temptation to make 
changes was always nigh : often amounted to a provocation ; 
and some changes were needful, especially in arranging the 
incompatible offices together. Joining distant parts of a 
subject sometimes occasioned clipping or linking: clumsy 
sentences and obsolete or superfluous words have often been 
altered; but always with the intent to save the meaning of 
the law. " Unalienable " turns to inalienable : " such,' 7 
u said," "aforesaid" to words in common use: "holden" 



FGRETALK, VII 

becomes held : "parties," persons: "right of enjoying and 
defending," rights of enjoying and defending. (See Rights, 
par. 1 and 16.) " In congress assembled" (Rights, art. iv), 
like the second half of the enacting style which is authorita- 
tive (par. 144), was a wordy fashion of speech when the 
idea was young: "judicatories" are courts of justice 
(par. 38). When a law is cancelled, and the only use of 
the amendment is to abolish the law (as chap, vi, art. ii, 
officers of Harvard College; and amendment xxvii), both 
are dropped. Bracketed parts are all dropped, sometimes 
replaced (as in Rights, ar. iii; am. xi, and par. 3). Some 
things not immediately forceful remain, from their brevity, 
and possible uses, as on naval officers (par. 94 ) ; though the 
state is protected by the United States navy : solictor general 
(par. 85) ; though the attorney general is the state's chief 
law officer. Many clauses and paragraphs need thorough 
reconstructing, but mostly they are familiar to lawyers, and 
intelligible to careful readers. Still a small glossary would 
be an advantage for paragraphs like 38. Latin words 
have been under ban : none allowed to remain. Ex post 
facto is a prepositional fog bank : habeas corpus is a clipped 
phrase even in the Latin ; and both, while familiar to law- 
yers as the chairs within the bar, are to probably nine tenths 
of the people of any state quite as unmeaning as hocus pocus 
and abracadabra. Hundreds of voters have studied only at 
the fireside : thousands have graduated only at the grammar 
school; but many of these are select men, clerks, wardens of 
elections. To many the old spelling book has been almost 
the only glossary. As children they knew nothing of the 
court room : the grave yard was not thought of. How did 
the work go? Hie jacet, here 'e lies; whether he fibs or 
lays himself down : the teacher often knew as little as the 
reciter; and both forgot immortality. E pluribns unum, 
one of many: one man, as likely as one nation; and one 
among many, as likely as one made up of many. Ex post 
facto, after the fact: perhaps a chase after it. Put it 
literally, out of after the deed; where still is the inexpert 
reader? Habeas corpus, you may have the body. For 
what? Perhaps to bury it: nobody in the school room 



Vlll FORETALK. 

knew. The constitution might as well, and as fairly to most 
people, carry instead paracentesis or theotokos. The jury 
system, so much berated in new states and territories, is 
largely lame from the law Latin, and the needless technical 
words in which the jurors are addressed. 

The governor's required estate is of a thousand pounds. 
The money of the state in 1780 was reckoned in pounds: 
the dollar unit was established by congress in 1786. In 
translation, the sum naturally runs out into cents. An ounce 
of silver was constitutionally valued at six shillings and eight 
pence (eh. vi, art. iii). A dollar is worth 68| pence; and 
240,000 pence-^-68f pence=3495,14, the number of dollars 
equivalent, in coined silver, with ten per cent, of alloy. If 
coin of the old English fineness, with six per cent, of alloy, be 
substituted, the sum will rise to f$ of $3495.14; $3650.48. 
When revision comes, it will abolish the property require- 
ment in all officers. A man who has friends enough to 
make him governor will have enough to endow him with 
$35 0J), if he have not a foot of land nor a horse to ride. 

Side words and citations, as the work of no one person, 
have been freely used: the citations all reprinted, which be- 
longed to the parts paragraphed ; but side words and index 
sentences have been shortened, lengthened, changed, accord- 
ing to the needs of the adjustment. 

HISTORY. 

The constitution has now, Dec. 25, 1883, been in full force 
for a hundred and three years and two months, since Oct. 
25, 1780. The truculence of kings and ministries, the un- 
trustworthiness of kings' charters, the stir of western Europe 
and eastern America, made the last quarters of the last cent- 
ury fruitful in constitutions. Men's thoughts, like their 
hands, were busy. The Anglo Saxons were foremost; but 
the French, with the American ferment in their returned 
soldiers, and the American examples before them, made four 
constitutions during the nineties of that period. In 1791 
their constituent assembly, named from its work, limited the 
monarchy, and made all ranks of people equal, with a con- 
stitution: in '93 the national convention planted the new 



FORETALK. IX 

republic on a constitution: in '95 it made a new one for the 
five directors: in '99 a fourth constitution made places for 
three consuls, of whom Napoleon Bonaparte was the large 
majority. 

In America were thirteen of England's colonies breaking 
regretfully but determinedly away from their oppressive 
mother. How much of each old form of government should 
be held? how much replaced by laws grown on free, new 
ground? The governing of Massachusetts by Andros under 
James the second, 1686, '7, '8 ; the writs of assistance, 1761 ; 
the stamp act, 1765; the tea act, 1767; the quartering of 
troops in Boston, 1768; the rebel act against Massachusetts, 
1769; the Boston massacre, 1770; the forcing of salaries 
for the king's governor and judges out of the colonial re- 
venues, 1772; the attempt to enforce the tea tax, 1773; the 
Boston port bill, the annulling of the Massachusetts charter, 
the renewed declaration of parliament that the people were 
rebels and should be tried in England for resistance to Bri- 
tish officers, 1774; the attempt of troops to destroy military 
stores at Danvers, 1775 ; all these doings provoked and forc- 
ed the people to assert their constitutional rights against 
the governor, and to repel his soldiers with soldierly bravery. 
War soon began at Lexington and Concord. Settling a 
forest country, exploring and surveying, fighting Indians, 
warring for England against the French, governing them- 
selves in town affairs, had made the colonists wise and self- 
trustful as well as hardy. They held congresses for general 
acquaintance and concerted action: the first, proposed by 
Massachusetts, at New York, Oct. 7, 1765: the second, 
arising from a Massachusetts resolution, met at Philadelphia, 
Sept. 4, 1774, and was the first to be named the continental 
congress. Constitution making: bejran long before the first 
congress met. In their matured forms, American constitu- 
tions are descendants of the British constitution, especially 
as it was improved after the crowning of William, prince of 
Orange; but the pilgrim forefathers in the Mayflower, off 
Cape Cod, in that little covenant of Nov.\ O. S., 1620, made 4fy 
the first constitution for Massachusetts ; and that was an 
English constitution, to govern Englishmen in the wilderness. 



X FORETALK. 

A larger effort was that of Franklin, a son of the Massa- 
chusetts colony, which was adopted by the colonial conven- 
tion at Albany, July 10, 1754. It never became law; but 
its substance was offered to the congress of 1775; and en- 
tered largely into the articles of confederation which, in con- 
gress at Philadelphia, became not very binding laws for the 
states, July 9, 1778; and Franklin was justified. From a 
desire of Washington, at Mount Vernon, spoken to patriotic 
friends in 1785, and after almost ten years of unsatisfactory 
use of the confederation laws, the constitution of the United 
States became law on the twentyfirst of June, 1788. 

In Massachusetts, the general court, council and house, 
the next winter after the declaration of independence, 
recommended the people to choose for their next house, 
representatives to draw up a constitution. In June, 
1777, a committee of twelve was chosen, which, at the 
next session, in January, 1778, brought in a constitution 
for the state of Massachusetts Bay. Many towns, how- 
ever, had wanted the work done by a convention of special 
delegates: the governor was not given all the executive 
power : the draught had been somewhat hurriedly made : 
it lacked a bill of rights; and was heavily defeated at the 
polls. On the twentieth of February, 1779, the legislature 
resolved to ask the people if they would have a new 
constitution, and would have their representatives call a state 
convention to make it. In June the voters by a large major- 
ity said yes to both questions ; although many towns made 
no answer. June 17, the legislature resolved that the people 
choose delegates; and the delegates met in Cambridge on 
the first of September, 1779. They chose a committee to 
shape a constitution. Nov. 11, they adjourned to meet at 
the hall of representatives, Boston, on the fifth of January, 
1780. By the second of March the constitution was done. 
It was by resolve given to the people for their votes ; and 
the pamphlet which contains it with the convention's address 
to the people, bears the -authority of James Bowdoin, presi- 
dent, and of Samuel Barrett, secretary. British and tory 
meddling, many feared, would defeat this lively hope of the 
patriots. They were only two years from the rejection of 



FORETALK. XI 

the constitution of 1778; but the people were ready for this 
one. More than the required two thirds of their votes ware 
for the constitution. On the seventh of June, the convention, 
according to adjournment, met in the Brattle street church, 
Boston, and put the returns into the hands of a committee, 
which reported June 14. On the fifteenth, the convention 
resolved " That the people of the state of Massachusetts Bay 
have accepted the constitution as it stands, in the printed 
form submitted for their revision " ; and " That the said con- 
stitution or frame of government shall take place on the last 
Wednesday of October next ; and not before, for any purpose, 
save only for that of making elections": then, June 16, the 
convention ceased to be; and on Wednesday, Oct. 25, 1780, 
the first legislature elected on the plan of the new consti- 
tution met in the state house at Boston. John Hancock was 
the governor, James Bowdoin the lieutenant governor. The 
old law gave place to the new. Cover the amendments, and 
that law appears by itself, which, without alteration, served 
the state for almost forty years and a half. Its adoption 
shows the hope and spirit of the men of Massachusetts in 
the later darkness of the revolution. Moreover, that first 
legislature's meeting was but thirtythree days after Arnold's 
bargain to give up West Point. Six days, however, before 
the next twentyfifth of October, the sky was bright again : 
Cornwallis surrendered at Yorktown. In 1795, the people 
fulfilled the only article which, in the constitution, authorized 
amendments, by declining to make any. In 1820, June 1G, 
an act of the legislature asked the people's will on revising 
or altering the constitution. Maine had just become a state : 
the people of Massachusetts were 523 000 instead of 821 000 : 
they governed 7800 square miles instead of 42,800 : they 
could revise more satisfactorily, for only the home state. A 
large majority favored a convention. Delegates were chosen, 
who met at the state house in Boston, Nov. 15, 1820; and 
John Adams, one of the original framers, declining the labor 
of presiding at the age of eightyfive, Isaac Parker, chief 
justice of the state supreme court, was chosen president. 
Jan. 9, 1821, having agreed to fourteen amendments, the 
convention chose a committee to examine the returns of 



Xll FORETALK. 

votes, and dismissed itself. The people voted on Monday, 
April 9 : the committee, May 24, found that nine amend- 
ments had been ratified, five defeated. The governor, June 
5, proclaimed the success of the nine amendments, which 
became operative July 4, 1821. In 1851, the people voted 
not to call a revising convention; but in 1852 they voted to 
call one; and elected delegates in March, 1853. This con- 
vention organized at the state house in Boston, May 4, with 
Nathaniel P. Banks, Junior, for president. The convention 
ended its work and dissolved itself Aug. 1. The people voted 
no to the revision and the amendments; but in 1855 made 
haste to add six amendments to the long complexity. To 
this day, therefore, no revision has been ratified, although 
twentyeight amendments have been made and ratified. The 
original constitution having no rule for amendments after 
1795, the amendment now numbered the ninth was ratified 
in 1821, to furnish a rule; and all amendments since have 
regularly passed two successive legislatures before coming to 
the people. The dates at which the parts of the constitution 
have been voted upon by the people, then, are these. 

Body of constitution, betw. March 2 and June 7, 1780. 

Amendments 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, April 9, 1821. 

Amendment 10, May 11, 1831. 

Amendment 11, November 11, 1833. 

Amendment 12, November 14, 1836. 

Amendment 13, April 6, 1840. 
Amendments 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, May 23, 1855. 

Amendments 20, 21, 22, May 1, 1857. 

Amendment 23, May 9, 1859. 

Amendments 24, 25, May 7, 1860. 

Amendment 26, April 6, 1863. 

Amendment 27, November 6, 1877. 

Amendment 28, November 8, 1881. 

New Salem, Dec. 31, 1883. 



EFFECTS OF AMENDMENTS. 



1. Governor's objection kills a bill left by ad- 

journment. 

2. Cities of 12000 and more, established by 

legislature which may annul bylaws. 

3. Voters generally described: exceptions in 

20 and 28. 

4. Notaries appointed for seven years by gov- 

ernor and council : removable by governor 
and council: commissary general, if 
needed : militia officers removable. 

5. Militia minors vote for company officers. 

6. Oath and affirmation of allegiance given. 

7. Allegiance and office the only oaths. 

8. Offices, not allowed together in one man. 

9. Amendment passes senate by majority, 

house by two thirds : so in next legisla- 
ture : then people vote. 

10. Governmental year begins first Wednesday 

in January: sitting of legislature ends 
day before. Rest of no. 10 dead since 
May 23, 1855. 

11. Religious societies independent: no sect 

lawfully rules another. 

12. Census ordered, and representation rear- 

ranged. Am. dead since April 6, 1840. 

13. Council, senate, house, by last clause, open 

to citizens without property. Rest of no. 
13 dead since May 1, 1857. 

14. Plurality established in elections. 



Voted 
by people. 

1821. 



1831. 

1833. 
1836. 
1840. 

1855. 



XIV 



EFFECTS OF AMENDMENTS. 



15. 



16. 



17. 



18. 



19. 



20. 



21. 



22. 



23. 

24. 

25. 

26. 
27. 



28. 



Election of state officers fixed on " the 
Tuesday next after the first Monday in 
November." 

Councillors, beside lieutenant governor, 
eight from eight districts : not fewer than 
five act with the governor on returns of 
elections : vacancies filled, of governor 
and lieutenant governor. 

Heads of bureaus chosen yearly: must 
have been citizens five years when cho- 
sen : vacancies filled. 

Public school money not for any sect: 
spent under town and city officers. 

County officers and district attorneys chosen 
by the people. 

Voter must read English, and write his 
name ; if not unfitted bodily, nor 60 years 
old in 1857, May 1. 

Representatives : 240 memberships, fixed 
upon each state census: counties district- 
ed : one latest year's residence in district : 
100 representatives a quorum. 

Senators : 40 memberships, upon censuses : 
40 districts : residence of five latest years 
in state: 16 senators a quorum. 

Naturalized citizens waited two years be- 
fore voting. Am. dead since April 6, 1863. 

Senate's vacancies filled by new elections 
by people. 

Council's vacancies filled by legislature ; or 
by governor and council. 

Twentythird amendment annulled. 

Harvard university officers may become 
senators or representatives : cancels for- 
biddance in constitution, chap. 6, sec. 2. 

Veterans of U. S. army and navy not dis- 
franchised by pauperism, nor by failure 
to pay poll taxes if paupers. 

[For days of months when voted, see p. xii.] 



1855. 



1857. 



1859. 
1860. 



1863. 
1877. 



1881. 



SAYINGS. 



What constitutes a state? Not highraised battlements : no: men, 
highminded, who their duties know, but know their rights. 
And sover'ign law. that state's collected will, 
Sits empress, crowning good, repressing ill. 

Shortened from Sir William Jones. 

They love their land because it is their own, 
And scorn to give aught other reason why. 

Fitz Green Halleck. 

A commonwealth can not be well conducted under the command 
of many. 

Cornelius Nepos. 

Words are to be so understood that the subject matter may be 

preserved rather than destroyed. 
Truth is afraid of nothing but concealment. 

Justice knows neither father nor mother : justice looks to truth alone. 
Justice is not to be denied nor delayed. 
A public light can not be changed by private agreement. 
The law regards the order of nature. 

From the Latin. 

Where law ends, tyranny begins. 

Earl of Chatham. 

The law looks forward, not backward. 

The law compels no man to do impossibilities. 

From the Latin. 

Nothing is law that is not reason. 

Sir John Powell. 

Law is the perfection of reason, which commands what is useful 
and necessary, and forbids the contrary. 

From the Latin. 

Our human laws are but the copies, more or less imperfect, of the 
eternal laws, so for as we can read them. 

Froude. 

The first great law is to obey. 

Schiller. 

He who obeys with modesty, appears worthy of being some day 
allowed to command. 

Cicero. 



THE MAYFLOWER CONSTITUTION, 
SIGNED NOV. ii, 1620. 



IN THE NAME OF GOD, AMEN; WE WHOSE NAMES ARE UN- 
DERWRITTEN, THE LOYAL SUBJECTS OF OUR DREAD SOVEREIGN 
KING JAMES, HAVING UNDERTAKEN, FOR THE GLORY OF GOD, 
AND ADVANCEMENT OF THE CHRISTIAN FAITH, AND HONOR 
OF OUR KING AND COUNTRY, A VOYAGE TO PLANT THE FIRST 
COLONY IN THE NORTHERN PARTS OF VIRGINIA, DO, BY THESE 
PRESENTS, SOLEMNLY AND MUTUALLY, IN THE PRESENCE OF 
GOD, AND ONE OF ANOTHER, COVENANT AND COMBINE OUR- 
SELVES TOGETHER, INTO A CIVIL BODY POLITIC, FOR OUR 
BETTER ORDERING AND PRESERVATION, AND FURTHERANCE OF 
THE ENDS AFORESAID; AND BY VIRTUE HEREOF, TO ENACT, 
CONSTITUTE, AND FRAME, SUCH JUST AND EOJJAL LAWS, 
ORDINANCES, ACTS, CONSTITUTIONS, AND OFFICES, FROM /TIME 
TO TIME, AS SHALL BE THOUGHT MOST CONVENIENT FOR THE 
GENERAL GOOD OF THE COLONY. UNTO WHICH WE PROMISE 
ALL DUE SUBMISSION AND OBEDIENCE, 



PEBAMBLE. 



The end of the institution, maintenance, and admin- 
istration of government, is to secure the existence of the 
body politic, to protect it, and to furnish the individuals 
who compose it with the power of enjoying in safety 
and tranquillity their natural rights, and the blessings 
of life : and whenever these great objects are not ob- 
tained, the people have a right to alter the government, 
and to take measures necessary for their safety, pros- 
perity, and happiness. 

The body politic is formed by a voluntary association 
of individuals : it is a social compact, by which the 
whole people covenants with each citizen, and each 
citizen with the whole people, that all shall be governed 
by certain laws for the common good. It is the duty 
of the people, therefore, in framing a constitution of 
government, to provide for an equitable mode of mak- 
ing laws, as well as for an impartial interpretation and 
a faithful execution of them; that every man may, at all 
times, find his security in them. 

We, therefore, the people of Massachusetts, acknowl- 
edging, with grateful hearts, the goodness of the great 
Legislator of the universe, in affording us, in the course 
of His providence, an opportunity, deliberately and 
peaceably, without fraud, violence, or surprise, of enter- 
ing into an original, explicit, and solemn compact with 
each other ; and of forming a new constitution of civil 
government, for ourselves and posterity; and devoutly 
imploring His direction in so interesting a design, do 
agree upon, ordain, and establish, the following Decla- 
ration of Eights, and Frame of Government, as the 
Constitution of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. 
1 



ADJUSTED CONSTITUTION OF 
MASSACHUSETTS. 



BIGHTS OF INHABITANTS. 



Rights : Art. I, II ; Am. XI. 



Equality 

in law : 

natural rights. 



1» (1780.) All men are born free and 
equal, and have certain natural, essential, 
and inalienable rights ; among which are the 
rights of enjoying and defending their lives 
and liberties, of acquiring, possessing and 
protecting property ; and, broadly, of seek- 
ing and obtaining their safety and happiness. 

2. (1780.) It is the right of all men 
in society, publicly, and at stated seasons, 
to worship the Supreme Being, the great 
Creator and Preserver of the universe. 
And no citizen shall be hurt, molested nor 
restrained, in his person, liberty nor estate, 
for worshipping God in the manner and 
season most agreeable to the dictates of his 
own conscience ; nor for his religious pro- 
fession nor sentiments ; if he doth not dis- 
turb the public peace, nor hinder others in 
their religious worship. 

3. (Am. 11, 1833.) As the public 
worship of God, and instructions in piety, 
religion and morality, promote the happiness 



Worship : 

protection 

therein. 

2 Cush. 104. 

12 Allen, 129. 



OKIGINAL CONSTITUTION OF 
MASSACHUSETTS. 



PART THE FIRST. 

A Declaration of the Rights of the Inhabitants of the 
Commonwealth of Massachusetts, 

Article I. All men are born free and equal, and 
have certain natural, essential, and unalienable rights ; 
among which may be reckoned the right of enjoying 
and defending their lives and liberties ; that of acquir- 
ing, possessing, and protecting property ; in fine, that 
of seeking and obtaining their safety and happiness. 

II. It is the right as well as the duty of all men 
in society, publicly, and at stated seasons, to worship 
the Supreme Being, the great Creator and Preserver 
of the universe. And no subject shall be hurt, molested, 
or restrained, in his person, liberty, or estate, for wor- 
shipping God in the manner and season most agree- 
able to the dictates of his own conscience ; or for his 
religious profession or sentiments ; provided he doth 
not disturb the public peace, or obstruct others in their 
religious worship. 

III. [As the happiness of a people, and the good 
order and preservation of civil government, essentially 



ADJUSTED CONSTITUTION. 



Rights : Am.^XI ; Art. IY. 



Religious 
freedom. 



Society rights. 



and prosperity of a people, and the security 
of a republican government ; therefore, the 
several religious societies of this common- 
wealth, whether corporate or unincorporate, 
at any meeting legally warned and holden 
for that purpose, shall ever have the right 
to elect their pastors or religious teachers, 
to contract with them for their support, to 
122 Mass. ,40, 4i. raise money for erecting and repairing 
houses for public worship, for the mainte- 
nance of religious instruction, and for the 
payment of necessary expenses ; and each 
person belonging to any religious society 
shall be taken and held to be a member, 
until he shall file with the clerk of that so- 
ciety a written notice declaring the dissolu- 
tion of his membership, and thenceforth 
shall not be liable for any grant or contract 
which may be thereafter made or entered 
into by that society ; and all religious sects 
and denominations, demeaning themselves 
peaceably, and as good citizens of the com- 
monwealth, shall be equally under the pro- 
tection of the law ; and no subordination of 
any one sect nor denomination to another 
shall ever be established by law. 

4, (1780.) The people of this com- 
monwealth have the sole and exclusive right 
government, of governing themselves, as a free, sove- 
reign and independent state ; and do, and 
forever hereafter shall, exercise and enjoy 
every power, jurisdiction and right, which 
is not, or may not hereafter be, by them 



Sects alike 
in law. 



Self 



ORIGINAL CONSTITUTION. O 

depend upon piety, religion, and morality ; and as 
these cannot be generally diffused through a com- 
munity, but by the institution of the public worship of 
God, and of public instructions in piety, religion, and 
morality : Therefore, to promote their happiness, and 
to secure the good order and preservation of their 
government, the people of this commonwealth have a 
right to invest their legislature with power to authorize 
and require, and the legislature shall, from time to 
time, authorize and require, the several towns, pa- 
rishes, precincts, and other bodies politic, or. religious 
societies, to make suitable provision, at their own ex- 
pense, for the institution of the public worship of God, 
and for the support and maintenance of public Protes- 
tant teachers of piety, religion, and morality, in all cases 
where such provision shall not be made voluntarily. 

And the people of this commonwealth have also a 
right to, and do, invest their legislature with authority 
to enjoin upon all the subjects an attendance upon the 
instructions of the public teachers aforesaid, at stated 
times and seasons, if there be any on whose instruc- 
tions they can conscientiously and conveniently attend. 

Provided, notwithstanding, that the several towns, 
parishes, precincts, and other bodies politic, or reli- 
gious societies, shall, at all times, have the exclusive 
right of electing their public teachers, and of contract- 
ing with them for their support and maintenance. 

And all moneys, paid by the subject to the support 

of public worship, and of the public teachers aforesaid, 
1* 



ADJUSTED CONSTITUTION. 



Rights : Art. V, VI, VII. 



expressly delegated to the United States of 
America. 

5. (1780.) All power dwelt first in 
the people, and was derived from them ; 
wherefore the several magistrates and offi- 

Officerspeo- cers °^ government, vested with authority, 
pie's agents, legislative, executive or judicial, are their 

substitutes and agents, and are at all times 

accountable to them. 

6. (1780.) No man, nor corporation, 
"common? nor association of men, has any other title 

to obtain advantages, or particular and ex- 
clusive privileges, distinct from those of 
the community, than what arises from the 
consideration of services rendered to the 
No heredity of P u ' 3 lic ; and this title being in nature nei- 
office. ther hereditary, npr transmissible to chil- 
dren, nor to descendants, nor to relations 
by blood, the idea of a man born a magis- 
trate, lawgiver, or judge, is absurd and 
unnatural. 

7. (1780.) Government is established 
for the common good, for the protection, 

Government safet y> prosperity and happiness of the 
for common people ; and not for the profit, honor, nor 
private interest of any one man, family, 
nor class of men : therefore the people 
alone have an incontestable, inalienable 
;Peopie can an( ^ indefeasible right to institute govern- 
L reform it. ment ; and to reform, alter or totally 
change it, when their protection, safety, 
prosperity and happiness require their ac- 
tion. 



ORIGINAL CONSTITUTION. 7 

shall, if he require it, be uniformly applied to the sup- 
port of the public teacher or teachers of his own reli- 
gious sect or denomination, provided there be any on 
whose instructions he attends ; otherwise it may be paid 
towards the support of the teacher or teachers of the 
parish or precinct in which the said moneys are raised. 
And every denomination of Christians, demeaning 
themselves peaceably, and as good subjects of the 
commonwealth, shall be equally under the protection 
of the law : and no subordination of any one sect or 
denomination to another shall ever be established by 
law.] 

IV. The people of this commonwealth have the 
sole and exclusive right of governing themselves, as a 
free, sovereign, and independent state; and do, and 
forever hereafter shall, exercise and enjoy every power, 
jurisdiction, and right, which is not, or may not here- 
after be, by them expressly delegated to the United 
States of America, in Congress assembled. 

V. All power residing originally in the people, 
and being derived from them, the several magistrates 
and officers of government, vested with authority, 
whether legislative, executive, or judicial, are their 
substitutes and agents, and are at all times accounta- 
ble to them. 

VI. No man, nor corporation, or association of 
men, have any other title to obtain advantages, or 
particular and exclusive privileges, distinct from those 
of the community, than what arises from the conside- 



ADJUSTED CONSTITUTION. 



Rights : Art. VIII, IX, X. 



8. (1780.) To prevent those who are 
vested with authority from becoming op- 
pressors, the people have a right, at such 

Right of people periods and in such ways as they shall es- 
^ffice?? tablish by their frame of government, to 
cause their public officers to return to pri- 
vate life ; and to fill up vacant places by 
certain and regular elections and appoint- 
ments. 

9. (1780.) All elections ought to be 
free ; and* all the inhabitants of this com- 
monwealth, having such qualifications as 

A_nv voter a 

public servant, they shall establish by their frame of gov- 
ernment, have equal rights to elect officers, 
595 *596 8 ' an d to be elected, for public employments. 

10. (1780.) Each inhabitant of the 
Protection and commonwealth has a right to be protected 

^orrdaUve. by it in the enjoyment of his life, liberty 

Taxation and and property, according to standing laws. 

consent. jj e j g oblige^ consequently, to contribute 

16 Mass. 326. his share to the expense of this protection ; 

I Pick. 418. . . 

7 Pick.' 344. to give his personal service, or an equiva- 
16 pick] 87 4,467 ' lent, when necessary: but no part of the 
^MeT.^sl 60 ' property of any individual, can, with 
*S ray 'So' justice, be taken from him, or applied to 

7 Gray, 363. «* . ' . ' rr 

HGray, 154.3 public uses, but by his own consent, or by 
4 Alien,' 474* that of the representative body of the peo- 
P ty V andpub?fc r "pl e * The people of this commonwealth 
6Cusn! e 327. are n0 ^ controllable by any other laws, 
HGray, 155. than those to which their constitutional 

16 Gray, 417,431. . . . 

i Aiien. 150. representative body has s;iven its consent ; 

II Allen, 530. S , ,, ; L v & . 

12 Aiien,223,23o. and whenever the public exigencies require 
io3ML1.'i2o;i24:that the property of any individual shall be 



ORIGINAL CONSTITUTION. \) 

ration of services rendered to the public ; and this title 
being in nature neither hereditary, nor transmissible 
to children, or descendants, or relations by blood, the 
idea of a man born a magistrate, lawgiver, or judge, 
is absurd and unnatural. 

VII. Government is instituted for the common 
good; for the protection, safety, prosperity, and hap- 
piness of the people ; and not for the profit, honor, or 
private interest of any one man, family, or class of 
men : Therefore the people alone have aa incontesti- 
ble, unalienable, and indefeasible right to institute 
government; and to reform, alter, or totally change 
the same, when their protection, safety, prosperity, 
and happiness require it. 

VIII. In order to prevent those who are vested 
with authority from becoming oppressors, the people 
have a right, at such periods and in such manner as 
they shall establish by their frame of government, to 
cause their public officers to return to private life ; 
and to fill up vacant places by certain and regular 
elections and appointments. 

IX. All elections ought to be free; and all the 
inhabitants of this commonwealth, having such qualifi- 
cations as they shall establish by their frame of gov- 
ernment, have an equal right to elect officers, and to 
be elected, for public employments. 

X. Each individual of the society has a right to 
be protected by it in the enjoyment of his life, liberty, 
and property, according to standing laws. He is 



10 



ADJUSTED CONSTITUTION. 



Rights : Art. XI, XII, XIII. 



106Mass.356,362. 
108Mass.202,213. 
Ill Mass. 130. 



Remedies by 

law, free and 

prompt. 



appropriated to public uses, he shall re- 
ceive a reasonable compensation therefor. 



113 Mass. 45. 
116 Mass. 463. 



12(xMass. 428, 441. 
129 3Iass.559. 



127 Mass. 50, 52, 
358, 363, 410, 413. 



Prosecutions 
regulated. 



8 Pick. 211. 
10 Pick. 9. 
18 Pick. 434. 
21 Pick. 542. 
2 Met. 329. 
12 Cush. 246. 

1 Gray, 1. 

5 Gray, 160. 
8 Gray, 329. 

10 Gray, 11. 

11 Gray, 438. 

2 Allen, 361. 

11 Allen, 238- 
240, 264, 439, 473, 

12 Allen, 170. 
97 Mass. 570,573 
lOOMass.287,295 
103 Mass. 418. 
107Mass. 172,180 
108 Mass. 5, 6. 



11. (1780.) Every citizen of the com- 
monwealth ought to find a certain remedy, 
by having recourse to the laws, for all in- 
juries or wrongs which he may receive in 
his person, property or character. He 
ought to obtain right and justice freely, 
without being obliged to purchase them ; 
completely, without any denial ; promptly, 
without delay ; conformably to the laws. 

12. (1780.) No citizen shall be held 
to answer for any crime nor offence, until 
the same is fully and plainly, substantially 
and formally, described to him; nor be 
compelled to accuse, nor furnish evidence 
against, himself; and every person shall 
have a right to produce all proofs that may 
be favorable to him ; to meet the witnesses 
against him face to face, and to be fully 
heard in his defence by himself, or his 
counsel, as he chooses ; and no citizen 
shall be arrested, imprisoned, despoiled 
nor deprived of his property, immunities, 
nor privileges, put out of the protection of 

■the law, exiled, nor deprived of his life, 
liberty, nor estate, but by the judgment of 
his peers, or the law of the land. 

118 Mass. 443, 451. 122 Mass. 332. 127 Mass. 550, 554. 



120 Mass. 118, 120. 



122 Mass. 332. 
124 Mass. 464. 



129 Mass. 559. 



Jury in 
criminal cases. 



13. The legislature shall not make any 
law, excepting for the government of the 



ORIGINAL CONSTITUTION. 11 

obliged, consequently, to contribute his share to the 
expense of this protection ; to give his personal ser- 
vice, or an equivalent, when necessary : but no part 
of the property of any individual can, with justice, be 
taken from him, or applied to public uses, without his 
own consent, or that of the representative body of the 
people. In fine, the people of this commonwealth are 
not controllable by any other laws than those to which 
their constitutional representative body have given 
their consent. And whenever the public exigencies 
require that the property of any individual should 
be appropriated to public uses, he shall receive a rea- 
sonable compensation therefor. 

XI. Every subject of the commonwealth ought to 
find a certain remedy, by having recourse to the laws, 
for all injuries or wrongs which he may receive in his 
person, property, or character. He ought to obtain 
right and justice freely, and without being obliged to 
purchase it ; completely, and without any denial ; 
promptly, and without delay ; conformably to the laws. 

XII. No subject shall be held to answer for any 
crimes or offence, until the same is fully and plainly, 
substantially, and formally, described to him ; or be 
compelled to accuse, or furnish evidence against him- 
self. And every subject shall have a right to produce 
all proofs that may be favorable to him ; to meet the 
witnesses against him face to face, and to be fully 
heard in his defence by himself, or his counsel, at his 
election. And no subject shall be arrested, imprisoned, 



12 ADJUSTED CONSTITUTION. 



Rights : Art. XIII, XIY, XY. 

army and navy, that shall subject any per- 
? Gray, 329, 373. son to a capital or infamous punishment 

103 Mass. 418. . , . , K r 

without trial by jury. 

14# (1780.) In criminal prosecutions, 

Crimes proved ^he verification of facts, in the vicinity 

where done. w here they happen, is one of the greatest 

? Pick. 550. securities of the life, liberty and property 

121 Mass. 61, 62. n , . . ' J r r J 

of the citizen. 

15. (1780.) Every citizen has a right 
to be secure from all unreasonable searches 
and seizures, of his person, his houses, his 
papers and all his possessions. All war- 
rants, therefore, are contrary to this right, 
if the causes or foundations of them be not 
previously supported by oath or affirma- 

search and sei- ^i n, and if the order in the warrant to a 

zure regulated. . ' 

civil officer, to make search in suspected 

Const, of u.s. places, or to arrest one or more suspected 

Amend, iv. p ersons? or £ se ize their property, be not 

accompanied with a special designation of 
5Cush 3 369 ^ ie P ersons or objects of search, arrest, or 

1 Gray,' i. * seizure : and no warrant ought to be issued 
10 Alien, 403. but in cases, and with the formalities, pie- 
£Su£a3£& scribed by the laws. 

16, (1780.) In all controversies con- 
Trial by jury eerning property, and in all suits between 

sacred. © r r . ^ » i • .1 

two or more persons, wherein the practice 
const, of u.s. has not heretofore been otherwise, the con- 
Amend, vii. testants have a right to a trial by jury ; 

2 pick. 382. an ^ this method of procedure shall be held 
5Gra k ' 3 i44 sacred, unless, in causes arising on the 
8 Gray,' 373.' high seas, and in such as relate to mari- 



ORIGINAL CONSTITUTION. 13 

despoiled, or deprived of his property, immunities, or 
'privileges, put out of the protection of the law, exiled, 
or deprived of his life, liberty, or estate, but by the 
judgment of his peers, or the law of the land. 

And the legislature shall not make any law that 
shall subject any person to a capital or infamous punish- 
ment, excepting for the government of the army and 
navy, without trial by jury. 

XIII. In criminal prosecutions, the verification of 
facts, in the vicinity where they happen, is one of the 
greatest securities of the life, liberty, and property of 
the citizen. 

XIV. Every subject has a right to be secure from 
all unreasonable searches, and seizures, of his person, 
his houses, his papers, and all his possessions. All 
warrants, therefore, are contrary to this right, if the 
cause or foundation of them be not previously supported 
by oath or affirmation, and if the order in the warrant 
to a civil officer, to make search in suspected places, or 
to arrest one or more suspected persons, or to seize 
their property, be not accompanied with a special desig- 
nation of the persons or objects of search, arrest, or 
seizure : and no warrant ought to be issued but in 
cases, and with the formalities prescribed by the laws. 

XV. In all controversies concerning property, and 
in all suits between two or more persons, except in 
cases in which it has heretofore been otherways used 
and practised, the parties have a right to a trial by 
jury ; and this method of precedure shall be held sacred. 



5 Gray, 121. 



14 ADJUSTED CONSTITUTION. 

Rights : Art. XVI, XVII, XYIII, XIX. 

ii Alien 574 577. nerB ' wa g es > the legislature shall hereafter 
102 Mass. 45, 47." need to alter it. 

114 Mass. 388, 390. 122 Mass. 505, 516. 125 Mass. 182, 188. 
120 Mass. 320, 321. 123 Mass. 590, 593. 128 Mass. 600. 

17. (1780.) The liberty of the press 
Press free, is essential to the security of freedom in a 

state : it ought not, therefore, to be re- 
strained in this commonwealth. 

18. (1780.) The people have a right 
Weap S I l s ' keep to keep and to bear arms for the common 

and bear. , * . 

defence ; and as, in time ot peace, armies 
are dangerous to liberty, they ought not to 
CMi power be maintained without the consent of the 
above mmtary. legislature ; and the military power shall 
always be held in exact subordination to 
the civil authority, and be governed by it. 

19. (1780.) A frequent recurrence to 
the fundamental principles of the constitu- 
tion, and a constant adherence to those of 
piety, justice, moderation, temperance, in- 

,l officers" u dustry and frugality, are absolutely neces- 
sary to preserve the advantages of liberty, 
and to maintain a free government. The 
people ought, consequently, to have a par- 
ticular attention to all those principles, in 
the choice of their officers and representa- 
tives ; and they have a right to require of 
their lawgivers and magistrates an exact 
and constant observance of them, in the 
formation and execution of the laws neces- 
sary for the good administration of the 
commonwealth. 

20. (1780.) The people have a right, 
in an orderly and peaceable manner, to as- 



Morals and 



ORIGINAL CONSTITUTION. 15 

unless, in causes arising on the high seas, and such as 
relate to mariners' wages, the legislature shall hereafter 
find it necessary to alter it. 

XVI. The liberty of the press is essential to the 
security of freedom in a state : it ought not, therefore, 
to be restrained in this commonwealth. 

XVII. The people have a right to keep and to bear 
arms for the common defence. And as, in time of 
peace, armies are dangerous to liberty, they ought not 
to be maintained without the consent of the legislature ; 
and the military power shall always be held in an exact 
subordination to the civil authority, and be governed 
by it. 

XVIII. A frequent recurrence to the fundamental 
principles of the constitution, and a constant adherence 
to those of piety, justice, moderation, temperance, in- 
dustry, and frugality, are absolutely necessary to pre- 
serve the advantages of liberty, and to maintain a free 
government. The people ought, consequently, to have 
a particular attention to all these principles, in the 
choice of their officers and representatives : and they 
have a right to require of their lawgivers and magis- 
trates an exact and constant observance of them, in the 
formation and execution of the laws necessary for the 
good administration of the commonwealth. 

XIX. The people have a right, in an orderly and 
peaceable manner, to assemble to consult upon the 
common good ; give instructions to their representa- 
tives, and to request of the legislative body, by the 



& 



16 



ADJUSTED CONSTITUTION. 



Rights : Art. XX, XXI, XXII, XXIII, XXIY. 



People may 

instruct and 

petition. 



Laws, 

suspension. 



Debate free : 
reason. 



semble to consult upon the common good ; 
to give instructions to their representatives, 
and to request of the legislative body, 
through addresses, petitions or remon- 
strances, redress of the wrongs done them, 
and of the grievances they suffer. 

21 • (1780.) The power of suspending 
the laws, or the execution of the laws, 
ought never to be exercised but by the 
legislature, or by authority derived from it, 
to be exercised in only such particular 
cases as the legislature shall expressly pro- 
vide for. 

22. (1780.) The freedom of delibera- 
tion, speech and debate, in each house of 
the legislature, is so essential to the rights 
of the people, that it cannot be the foun- 
dation of any .accusation nor prosecution, 
action nor complaint, in any other court 
nor place whatsoever. 

23. (1780.) The legislature ought fre- 
quently to sit for the redress of grievances, 
for correcting, strengthening and confirm- 
ing the laws, and for making new laws, as 
the common good may require. 

24. (1780.) No subsidy, charge, tax, 
impost, nor duties ought to be fixed, nor 
levied, under any pretext whatever, with- 
out the consent of the people, or of their 
representatives in the legislature. 

25. (1780.) Laws made to punish ac- 
ished by co-ex- tions done before the existence of such 

istmgiaws. | aws? an( j wnen those actions have not been 



Sittings fre- 
quent. 



Taxes by con- 
sent. 






ORIGINAL CONSTITUTION. 17 

way of addresses, petitions, or remonstrances, redress 
of the wrongs done them, and of the grievances they 
suffer. 

XX. The power of suspending the laws, or the 
execution of the laws, ought never to be exercised but 
by the legislature, or by authority derived from it, to 
be exercised in such particular cases only as the legis- 
lature shall expressly provide for. 

XXI. The freedom of deliberation, speech, and 
debate, in either house of the legislature, is so essential 
to the rights of the people, that it cannot be the found- 
ation of any accusation or prosecution, action or com- 
plaint, in any other court or place whatsoever. 

XXII. The legislature ought frequently to as- 
semble for the redress of grievances, for correcting, 
strengthening, and confirming the laws, and for making 
new laws, as the common good may require. 

XXIII. No subsidy, charge, tax, impost, or duties 
ought to be established, fixed, laid, or levied, under 
any pretext whatsoever, without the consent of the 
people or their representatives in the legislature. 

XXIV. Laws made to punish for actions done 
before the existence of such laws, and which have not 
been declared crimes by preceding laws, are unjust, 
oppressive, and inconsistent with the fundamental 
principles of a free government. 

XXV. No subject ought, in any case, or in any 
time, to be declared guilty of treason or felony by the 

legislature. 

2* 



18 ADJUSTED CONSTITUTION. 

Rights : Art. XXV, XXVI, XXYII, XXYIII, XXIX. 

declared crimes by preceding laws, are un- 
just, oppressive and inconsistent with the 
fundamental principles of a free govern- 
ment. 
Legislature not 26 « (1780.) No citizen ought in any 
aC cou n A nal case 5 nor at an y time, to be declared guilty 
of treason, nor of felony by the legislature. 

27. (1780.) No magistrate nor court 
E flne8andpun- of law shall demand excessive bail nor 

ish hibited pr0 sureties, impose excessive fines, nor inflict 
5 Gray, 482. cruel nor unusual punishments. 

28. (1780.) In time of peace, no sol- 
dier ought to be quartered in any house 

houses^owners' without the consent of the owner ; and in 
consent. t[ me f war, such quarters ought not to be 
made but by the civil magistrate, in a 
manner ordained by the legislature. 

29. (1780.) No person except those 
employed in the army or navy, and except 

legislature wi? y tne m ^^ a * n actua l service, can in any case 
be subject to martial law, nor to any penal- 
ties nor pains, by virtue of that law, but by 
authority of the legislature. 

30. (1780.) It is essential to the pre- 
servation of the rights of every individual, 
of his life, liberty, property and character, 
that there be an impartial interpretation of 

judges of su- the laws, and administration of justice. It 
preme court. j s ^he right of every citizen to be tried 

3 pick. 47i. h ? J ud § es as free > im P artial > and in ~ 
i Gray, 472. dependent as the lot of humanity will 

7 tlieS; Sis', admit. It is, therefore, not only the best 

1 ^m^m^ 19 ' policy, but for the security of the rights of 



ORIGINAL CONSTITUTION. 19 

XXVI. No magistrate or court of law shall de- 
mand excessive bailor sureties, impose excessive fines, 
or inflict cruel or unusual punishments. 

XXVII. In time of peace, no soldier ought to be 
quartered in any house without the consent of the 
owner ; and in time of war, such quarters ought not 
to be made but by the civil magistrate, in a manner 
ordained by the legislature. 

XXVIII. No person can in any case be subject to 
law-martial, or to any penalties or pains, by virtue of 
that law, except those employed in the army or navy, 
and except the militia in actual service, but by authority 
of the legislature. 

XXIX. It is essential to the preservation of the 
rights of every individual, his life, liberty, property, 
and character, that there be an impartial interpretation 
of the laws, and administration of justice. It is the 
right of every citizen to be tried by judges as free, im- 
partial, and independent as the lot of humanity will 
admit. It is, therefore, not only the best policy, but 
for the security of the rights of the people, and of every 
citizen, that the judges of the supreme judicial court 
should hold their offices as long as they behave them- 
selves well ; and that they should have honorable 
salaries ascertained and established by standing laws. 

XXX. In the government of this commonwealth, 
the legislative department shall never exercise the 
executive and judicial powers, or either of them: the 
executive shall never exercise the legislative and judicial 



20 ADJUSTED CONSTITUTION. 



Rights : Art. XXX ; Frame ; Con., Chap. I, Sec. I, Art. I. 

the people, and of every citizen, that the 
During good Judges of the supreme judicial court shall 
behavior, hold their offices as long as they behave 
themselves well ; and that they shall have 
honorable salaries ascertained and estab- 
lished by standing laws. 

31. (1780.) In the government of this 
^ uv * * commonwealth, the legislative department 

Each body to ' . o ? . 

its own duties, shall never exercise the executive and judi- 
cial powers, nor either of them : the execil- 
2Aii S en, 5 36i. tive shall never exercise the legislative and 
fooiiass^m J u ^ c ^ a ^ P ow ers, nor either of them : the 
ii6^as8^7 49 ' J u ^ c ^ s ^ a ^ never exercise the legislative 
129 Mass! 559'. and executive powers, nor either of them : 
to the end it may be a government of laws 
and not of men. 

FRAME OF GOVERNMENT. 

32. (1780.) The people, inhabiting 
the territory formerly called the Province 
of Massachusetts Bay, do hereby solemnly 

Name of state, and mutually agree with each other, to 
form themselves into a free, sovereign and 
independent body politic or state, by the 
name of The Commonwealth of Massachu- 
setts. 

GENERAL COURT. 

33. (1780.) The department of legis- 
Legislature, l a tion shall be formed of two branches, a 

two houses. _ • n t . , 

senate and a house or representatives, each 
of which shall have a negative on the other. 



ORIGINAL CONSTITUTION. 21 

powers, or either of them: the judicial shall never 
exercise the legislative and executive powers, or either 
of them : to the end it may be a government of laws 
and not of men. 



PART THE SECOND. 



The Frame of Government. 
The people, inhabiting the territory formerly called 
the Province of Massachusetts Bay, do hereby solemn- 
ly and mutually agree with each other, to form them- 
selves into a free, sovereign, and independent body 
politic, or state, by the name of The Commonwealth 
of Massachusetts. 



CHAPTER I. 

THE LEGISLATIVE POWER. 

Section I. 

The General Court 

Article I. The department of legislation shall 

be formed by two branches, a Senate and House of 

Representatives ; each of which shall have a negative 

on the other. 

The legislative body shall assemble every year [on 
the last Wednesday in May, and at such other times 



22 ADJUSTED CONSTITUTION. 

Cox. : Am. X ; Chap. I, Sec. I, Art. II. 

The legislative body shall be styled, 
The General Court of Massachusetts. 

34, (Am. 10, 1831.) The political year 
Governmental shall begin on the first Wednesday of Jan- 
year begms. uar y . an( j t j ie g enera j cour t shall sit for busi- 
ness every year on the first Wednesday of 
January, and shall proceed, at that session, 
to make all the elections, and to do all the 
other acts, which are by the constitution re- 
quired to be made and done ; and the general 
court shall be dissolved on the day next 

Legislature preceding the first Wednesday of January, 

dissolved. * © . J . J ' 

without any proclamation or other act ot 
the governor. But nothing herein con- 
tained shall prevent the general court from 
sitting at such other times as it shall judge 
necessary, or when called into session by 
the governor. The governor, lieutenant 
governor and councillors, shall also hold 
their respective offices for one year next 
following the first Wednesday of January, 
and until others are chosen and qualified 
in their places. 

35. (1780.) No bill nor resolve of the 
senate nor of the house of representatives 
shall become a law, and have force as such, 
until it shall have been laid before the 
governor for his revisal ; and if he, upon 
revision, approve thereof, he shall signify 
his approbation by signing the same. But 
if he have any objection to the signing of a 

veto. bill or resolve, he shall return the paper, 
99 Mass. 636. with his objections thereto in writing, to the 



ORIGINAL CONSTITUTION. 23 

as they shall judge necessary ; and shall dissolve and 
be dissolved on the day next preceding the said last 
Wednesday in May ;] and shall be styled, The Gen- 
eral Court of Massachusetts. 

II. No bill or resolve of the senate or house of 
representatives shall become a law, and have force as 
such, until it shall have been laid before the governor 
for his revisal ; and if he, upon such revision, approve 
thereof, he shall signify his approbation by signing the 
same. But if he have any objection to the passing of 
such bill or resolve, he shall return the same, together 
with his objections thereto, in writing, to the senate or 
house of representatives, in whichsoever the same shall 
have originated ; who shall enter the objections sent 
down by the governor, at large, on their records, and 
proceed to reconsider the said bill or resolve. But if 
after such reconsideration, two-thirds of the said senate 
or house of representatives, shall, notwithstanding the 
said objections, agree to pass the same, it shall, to- 
gether with the objections, be sent to the other branch 
of the legislature, where it shall also be reconsidered, 
and if approved by two-thirds of the members present, 
shall have the force of a law : but in all such cases, the 
votes of both houses shall be determined by yeas and nays ; 
and the names of the persons voting for, or against, 
the said bill or resolve, shall be entered upon the pub- 
lic records of the commonwealth. 

And in order to prevent unnecessary delays, if any 
bill or resolve shall not be returned by the governor 



24 ADJUSTED CONSTITUTION. 

Cox. : Chap. I, Sec. I, Art. II ; Am. I. 

senate or house of representatives, in which- 
ever the same shall have originated, which 
shall enter the objections sent down by the 
governor, at large, on its records, and pro- 
ceed to reconsider the bill or resolve ; but 
if, after such reconsideration, two thirds of 
Two thirds can the senate or house of representatives, shall, 
notwithstanding the objections, agree to 
pass the bill or resolve, it shall, with the 
objections, be sent to the other branch of 
the legislature, where it shall also be re- 
considered ; and, if approved by two thirds 
of the members present, shall have the force 
of a law ; but in all such cases, the votes 
of both houses shall be determined by yeas 
and nays ; and the names of the persons 
voting for, or against the said bill or 
resolve, shall be entered upon the public 
records of the commonwealth. 

36, (1780.) In order to prevent un- 
necessary delays, if any bill or resolve shall 
not be returned by the governor within five 

Bl oid, v iaw! ys session days after it shall have been presen- 
ted, the same shall have the force of a law. 

37. (Am. 1, 1821.) If any bill or re- 
solve shall be objected to, and not approved 
by the governor ; and if the general court 

adfoumment. shall adjourn within five days after the same 

shall have been laid before the governor for 

3 Mass. 567. hi s approbation, and thereby prevent his 

returning it with his objections, as provided 

i? e § i,°Art.'ii.' by the constitution, such bill or resolve shall 
not become a law, nor have force as such. 



ORIGINAL CONSTITUTION. 25 

within five days after it shall have been presented, the 
same shall have the force of a law. 

III. The general court shall forever have full power 
and authority to erect and constitute judicatories and 
courts of record, or other courts, to be held in the name 
of the commonwealth, for the hearing, trying, and 
determining of all manner of crimes, offences, pleas, 
processes, plaints, actions, matters, causes, and things, 
whatsoever, arising or happening within the common- 
wealth, or between or concerning persons inhabiting, 
or residing, or brought within the same : whether the 
same be criminal or civil, or whether the said crimes 
be capital or not capital, and whether the said pleas be 
real, personal, or mixed ; and for the awarding and 
making out of execution thereupon. To which courts 
and judicatories are hereby given and granted full 
power and authority, from time to time, to administer 
oaths or affirmations, for the better discovery of truth 
in any matter in controversy or depending before them. 

IV. And further, full power and authority are 
hereby given and granted to the said general court, 
from time to time to make, ordain, and establish, all 
manner of wholesome and reasonable orders, laws, 
statutes, and ordinances, directions and instructions, 
either with penalties or without ; so as the same be 
not repugnant or contrary to this constitution, as 
they shall judge to be for the good and welfare of 
this commonwealth, and for the government and or- 
dering thereof, and of the subjects of the same, and for 

3 



26 ADJUSTED CONSTITUTION. 



Cox. : Chap. I, Sec. I, Art. Ill ; Am. XIX, II. 

38. (1780.) The general court shall 
forever have full power and authority to 
erect and constitute courts of justice and 

Courts of jus- courts of record, or other courts, to beheld 
^Record^ to the name of the commonwealth, for the 
hearing, trying and determining of all man- 
8Gra i ner °^ crrmes > offences, pleas, processes, 

12 Gray, 147,154. plaints, actions, matters, causes and things, 
whatsoever, arising or happening within the 
commonwealth, or between or concerning 
persons inhabiting, or residing, or brought 
within it ; whether the causes be criminal 
or civil, or whether the crimes be capital 
or not capital, and whether the pleas be 
real, personal, or mixed ; and for the award- 
ing and making out of execution thereupon : 
to all which courts are hereby given and 
granted full power and authority, from time 
witnesses, to time, to administer oaths or affirmations, 
for the better discovery of truth in any mat- 
ter in controversy or depending before 
them. 

39. (Am. 19, 1855.) The legislature 
ters and' others", shall prescribe, by general law, for the 

by people, election of sheriffs, registers of probate, 
$ Gray i commissioners of insolvency, and clerks of 

13 Gray, 74. the courts, by the people of the several 

110Mass.l72 173* 

ii7Mass!eo2,W counties ; and that district attorneys shall 
121 Mass. 65. j^ c ] 10sen by the people of the several dis- 
tricts, for such terms of office as the legis- 
lature shall prescribe. 

40. (Am. 2, 1821.) The general court 
shall have full power and authority to erect 



ORIGINAL CONSTITUTION. 27 

the necessary support and defence of the government 
thereof: and to name and settle annually, or provide 
by fixed laws for the naming and settling, all civil 
officers within the said commonwealth, the election 
and constitution of whom are not hereafter in this form 
of government otherwise provided for ; and to set forth 
the several duties, powers, and limits, of the several 
civil and military officers of this commonwealth, and 
the forms of such oaths or affirmations as shall be 
respectively administered unto them for the execution 
of their several offices and places, so as the same be 
not repugnant or contrary to this constitution ; and to 
impose and levy proportional and reasonable assess- 
ments, rates, and taxes, upon all the inhabitants of, 
and persons resident, and estates lying, within the 
said commonwealth ; and also to impose and levy 
reasonable duties and excises upon any produce, goods, 
wares, merchandise, and commodities, whatsoever, 
brought into, produced, manufactured, or being within 
the same ; to be issued and disposed of by warrant, 
under the hand of the governor of this commonwealth 
for the time being, with the advice and consent of the 
council, for the public service, in the necessary defence 
and support of the government of the said common- 
wealth, and the protection and preservation of the 
subjects thereof, according to such acts as are or shall 
be in force within the same. 

And while the public charges of government, or any 
part thereof, shall be assessed on polls and estates, in 



28 ADJUSTED CONSTITUTION. 



C jx. : Am. II ; Chap. I, Sec. I, Aut. IV. 

and constitute municipal or city govern- 
City ments, in any corporate towns in this com- 

vrovernments 

' mon wealth, and to grant to the inhabitants 
122 Mass. 354. thereof such powers, privileges, and im- 
munities, not repugnant to the constitution, 
as the general court shall deem necessary 
or expedient for the regulation and govern- 
ment thereof; and to prescribe the manner 
of calling and holding public meetings of 
the inhabitants, in wards or otherwise, for 
the election of officers under the consti- 
tution ; and the manner of returning the 
votes given at such meetings ; but no such 
government shall be erected nor constituted 
12, at kust ab# m an 3 r t° wn n °t containing twelve thousand 
inhabitants, nor unless it be with the con- 
ii2 Mass. 200. sent, and on the application of a majority 
of the inhabitants of such town, present 
and voting thereon, pursuant to a vote at a 
meeting duly warned and held for that pur- 
pose ; and all by-laws, made by such muni- 
cipal or city government, shall be subject, 
at all times, to be annulled by the general 
court. 
General court 4,i ( 1780 Full power and authority are 
may enact laws, given to the general court, from time to time 
to make, ordain, and establish, all manner 
4 Alien, 473. of wholesome and reasonable orders, laws, 
ioom^ssImi'Js?'. statutes , and ordinances, directions and in- 
116Mass - 467 > 4 ~°-structions, either with penalties or without ; 
if the same be not repugnant nor contrary 
constitution, to this constitution, which they shall judge 
6 Alien, 358. to be for the good and welfare of this com- 



ORIGINAL CONSTITUTION. 29 

the manner that has hitherto been practised, in order 
that such assessments may be made with equality, 
there shall be a valuation of estates within the common- 
wealth, taken anew once in every ten years at least, 
and as much oftener as the general court shall order. 



CHAPTER L 

Section II. 

Senate. 

Article I. [There shall be annually elected, by the 
freeholders and other inhabitants of this commonwealth, 
qualified as in this constitution is provided, forty persons 
to* be councillors and senators for the year ensuing 
their election ; to be chosen by the inhabitants of the 
districts into which the commonwealth may, from time 
to time, be divided by the general court for that pur- 
pose : and the general court, in assigning the numbers 
to be elected by the respective districts, shall govern 
themselves by the proportion of the public taxes paid 
by the said districts ; and timely make known to the 
inhabitants of the commonwealth the limits of each 
district, and the number of councillors and senators to 
be chosen therein ; provided, that the number of such 
districts shall never be less than thirteen ; and that no 
district be so large as to entitle the same to choose 
more than six senators. 

And the several counties in this commonwealth shall, 
3* 



30 ADJUSTED CONSTITUTION. 



Con. : Chap. I, Sec. I, Aet. IY. 

monwealth, and for the government and 
ordering thereof, and of the citizens of 
the same, and for the necessary support and 
defence of the government thereof; and to 
name and settle annually, or provide by 
Name needful £ xe( i j aws f or tne na mino; and settling of, 

officers. . . , , ' m 

all civil officers within the commonwealth, 
115 Mass. 602. the election and constitution of whom are 
not hereafter in this form of government 
otherwise provided for ; and to set forth the 
Their duties, several duties, powers, and limits, of the 
several civil and military officers of this 
commonwealth, and the forms of such oaths 
or affirmations as shall be respectively ad- 
ministered unto them for the execution of 
their several offices and places, if the same 
be not contrary to this constitution ; and to 
impose taxes, impose and levy proportional and reason- 
able assessments, and taxes, upon all the 
5 2 Anen S '42 5 8 2 ' inhabitants of, and persons resident and 
6 Alien,' 558. estates lying within, the said common- 

8 Allen, 247,253. J ° . 

io Alien, 2:35. wealth ; and also to impose and levy reason- 

11 Allen, 268. it 1 ,• 1 • 1 

12 Alien, ?7,223, able duties and excises upon any produce, 
29s; 300; 312,' goods, wares, merchandise, and commo- 

98 lia«s 5( S>' 612 * dities, whatever, brought into, produced, 
100 Mass. 285. manufactured, or beino* within the same; 

lOlMass.575,585. , . , , t ° t n 1 

103 Mass. 267. to be issued and disposed ot by warrant, 
lie Mass. 8 4 8 6i 91 * under the hand of the governor of this 
liMassJav^'. commonwealth for the time being, with the 
127 Mass. 413. advice and consent of the council, for the 
public service, in the necessary defence and 
support of the government of the common- 
wealth, and the protection and preservation 



ORIGINAL CONSTITUTION. 31 

until the general court shall determine it necessary to 
alter the said districts, be districts for the choice of coun- 
cillors and senators, (except that the counties of Dukes 
County and Nantucket shall form one district for that 
purpose) and shall elect the following number for 
councillors and senators, viz. : — Suffolk, six ; Essex, 
six; Middlesex, five; Hampshire, four; Plymouth, 
three; Barnstable, one; Bristol, three; York, two; 
Dukes County and Nantucket, one ; Worcester, five ; 
Cumberland, one; Lincoln, one; Berkshire, two.] 

II. The senate shall be the first branch of the 
legislature ; and the senators shall be chosen in the 
following manner, viz. : there shall be a meeting on the 
[first Monday in April,] annually, forever, of the 
inhabitants of each town in the several counties of this 
commonwealth; to be called by the selectmen, and 
warned in due course of law, at least seven days before 
the [first Monday in April,] for the purpose of elect- 
ing persons to be senators and councillors ; [and at 
such meetings every male inhabitant of twenty-one 
years of age and upwards, having a freehold estate 
within the commonwealth, of the annual income of 
three pounds, or any estate of the value of sixty 
pounds, shall have a right to give in his vote for the 
senators for the district of which he is an inhabitant.] 
And to remove all doubts concernino- the meaning 
of the word "inhabitant " in this constitution, every 
person shall be considered as an inhabitant, for the 
purpose of electing and being elected into any office, 



32 ADJUSTED CONSTITUTION. 



Cox. : Ch. I, S. II, An. IV ; Am. XXII ; Ch. I, S. II, Ar. II. 

of the inhabitants thereof, according to such 
acts as are or shall be in force within the 
same. 

42, (1780.) While the public charges 
aJfenceand °f government, or any part thereof, shall 
protection, be assessed on polls and estates, in the man- 
ner that has hitherto been practised, in or- 

ien ' ' 'der that such assessments may be made 

Valuation once with equality, there shall be a valuation of 

in ten years. es tates within the commonwealth, taken 

8 Alien, 247. anew once in every ten years at least, and 

as much oftener as the general court shall 

order. 

43. (Am. 22, 1857.) A census of the 
inhabitants of each city and town, on the 

Census of first day of May, shall be taken and re- 
statutes, ch. 3i. turned into the office of the secretary of 
the commonwealth, on or before the last 
day of June, in the year one thousand 
eight hundred and sixty-five, and of every 
tenth year thereafter. In the census afore- 
named, a special enumeration shall be made 
of the legal voters ; and in each city the 
Basis of enumeration shall specify the number of 
sena and hips l e S a l voters, residing in each ward of the 
representative- city. The enumeration shall determine the 
apportionment of senators and represen- 
tatives for the periods between the takings 
of the census. 
_ . . .. . 44, (1780.) To remove all doubts con- 

Inhabitants, v / . . . 

who are. cernmg the meaning of the word inhabitants, 
12 Gray, 2i. in this constitution, every person shall be 
122Mass - 595 ' 597, considered as an inhabitant, for the purpose 



ORIGINAL CONSTITUTION. 33 

or place within this state, in that town, district, or 
plantation where he clwelleth, or hath his home. 

The selectmen of the several towns shall preside at 
such meetings impartially ; and shall receive the votes 
of all the inhabitants of such towns present and qualified 
to vote for senators, and shall sort and count them in 
open town meeting, and in presence of the town clerk, 
who shall make a fair record, in presence of the select- 
men, and in open town meeting, of the name of every 
person voted for, and of the number of votes against his 
name : and a fair copy of this record shall be attested 
by the selectmen and the town clerk, and shall be 
sealed up, directed to the secretary of the common- 
wealth for the time being, with a superscription, ex- 
pressing the purport of the contents thereof, and de- 
livered by the town clerk of such towns, to the sheriff 
of the county in which such town lies, thirty days at 
least before [the last Wednesday in May] annually ; 
or it shall be delivered into the secretary's office seven- 
teen days at least before the said [last Wednesday in 
May :] and the sheriff of each county shall deliver all 
such certificates by him received, into the secretary's 
office, seventeen days before the said [last Wednesday 
in May.] 

And the inhabitants of plantations unincorporated, 
qualified as this constitution provides, who are or shall 
be empowered and required to assess taxes upon them- 
selves toward the support of government, shall have 
the same privilege of voting for councillors and sen- 



34 ADJUSTED CONSTITUTION. 

Cox. : Am. Ill, XXVIII. 

of electing and being elected into any office, 
or place within this state, in that town, 
district, or plantation, where he dwelleth, 
or hath his home. 

45. (Am. 3, 1821.) Every male citizen 

of twenty-one years of age and upwards, 

excepting paupers and persons under guar- 

whoare. dianship, who shall have resided within the 

commonwealth one year, and within the 

14 Pick! 34L 540 ' town or district, in which he may claim a 

5 4 Met SS i6 3 > 67 298 r ig nt to v °te, six calendar months next 

591,594.' 'preceding any election of o-overnor, lieu- 

7 Gray, 299. I a J & > 

i22Mass.595,597. tenant governor, senators or representa- 
tives, and who shall have paid, by him- 
self or his parent, master or guardian, any 
state or county tax, which shall, within two 
years next preceding such election, have 
been assessed upon him, in any town or 
district of this commonwealth ; and also 
every citizen who shall be by law exempted 
from taxation, and who shall be in all other 
respects qualified as above mentioned, shall 
have a right to vote in that election of gov- 
ernor, lieutenant governor, senators and 
representatives ; and no other person shall 
be entitled to vote in that election. 

48, (Am. 28, 1881.) But no person 

having served in the army or navy of the 

Veterans of United States in time of war, and having 

U navy a not y dfs^ d been honorably discharged from that ser- 

quaimed. vice, if otherwise qualified to vote, shall be 

disqualified therefor on account of being a 

pauper ; nor, if a pauper, because of the 

non-payment of a poll tax. 



ORIGINAL CONSTITUTION. 35 

ators in the plantations where they reside, as town 
inhabitants have in their respective towns ; and the 
plantation meetings for that purpose shall be held 
annually [on the same first Monday in April], at such 
places in the plantations, respectively, as the assessors 
thereof shall direct ; which assessors shall have like 
authority for notifying the electors, collecting and re- 
turning the votes, as the selectmen and town clerks 
have in their several towns, by this constitution. And 
all other persons living in places unincorporated (quali- 
fied as aforesaid) who shall be assessed to the support 
of government by the assessors of an adjacent town, 
shall have the privilege of giving in their votes for 
councillors and senators in the town where they shall 
be assessed, and be notified of the place of meeting by 
the selectmen of the town where they shall be assessed, 
for that purpose, accordingly. 

III. And that there may be a due convention of 
senators on the [last Wednesday in May] annually, 
the governor with five of the council, for the time 
being, shall, as soon as may be, examine the returned 
copies of such records ; and fourteen days before the 
said day he shall issue his summons to such persons as 
shall appear to be chosen by [a majority of] voters, 
to attend on that day, and take their seats accordingly : 
provided, nevertheless, that for the first year the said 
returned copies shall be examined by the president and 
five of the council of the former constitution of govern- 
ment ; and the said president shall, in like manner, 



36 ADJUSTED CONSTITUTION. 



Cox. : Am. XX, XIV, XY, XIII. 

47. (Am. 20, 1857.) No person shall 
have the right to vote, nor be eligible to office 
under the constitution of this common- 
Voters to read wealth, who shall not be able to read the 

and write, constitution in the English language, and 
write his name ; but the provisions of this 
amendment shall not apply to any person 
prevented by a physical disability from com- 
plying with its requisitions, nor to any per- 
son who now has the right to vote, nor to 
any persons who shall be sixty years of age 
or upwards at the time this amendment 
shall take effect. 

48. (Am. 14, 1855.) In all elections 
of civil officers by the people of this com- 

Eiection by mon wealth, whose election is provided for by 

plurality of . . . . 1 • i 

votes. the constitution, the person having the 
highest number of votes shall be deemed 
and declared to be elected. 

49. (Am. 15, 1855.) The meeting for 
the choice of governor, lieutenant governor, 
senators and representatives, shall be held 

state election on the Tuesday next after the first Monday in 
day. November, annually ; but in case of a fail- 
ure to elect representatives on that day, a 
second meeting shall be held for that pur- 
pose, on the fourth Monday of the same 
month of November. 

50. (Am. 13, 1840.) No possession of 
a freehold, nor of any other estate, shall be 

Freehold not required as a qualification for holding a seat 
in either branch of the general court, nor in 
the executive council. 



ORIGINAL CONSTITUTION. 37 

issue his summons to the persons so elected, that they 
may take their seats as aforesaid. 

IV, The senate shall be the final judge of the elec- 
tions, returns and qualifications of their own members, 
as pointed out in the constitution ; and shall, [on the 
said last Wednesday in May] annually, determine 
and declare who are elected by each district to be sena- 
tors [by a majority of votes ; and in case there shall 
not appear to be the full number of senators returned 
elected by a majority of votes for any district, the 
deficiency shall be supplied in the following manner, 
viz. : The members of the house of representatives, 
and such senators as shall be declared elected, shall take 
the names of such persons as shall be found to have the 
highest number of votes in such district, and not elect- 
ed, amounting" to twice the number of senators wanting, 
if there be so many voted for ; and out of these shall 
elect by ballot a number of senators sufficient to fill up 
the vacancies in such district ; and in this manner all 
such vacancies shall be filled up in every district of the 
commonwealth ; and in like manner all vacancies in the 
senate, arising by death, removal out of the state, or 
otherwise, shall be supplied as soon as may be, after 
such vacancies shall happen.] 

V. Provided, nevertheless, that no person shall be 
capable of being elected as a senator, [who is not 
seised in his own right of a freehold, within this common- 
wealth, of the value of three hundred pounds at least, 
or possessed of personal estate to the value of six hun- 



38 ADJUSTED CONSTITUTION. 



Con. : Chap. I, Sec. II, Art. II; Am. XXII. 

SENATE. 

51. (1780; Am. 22, 1857.) Thesenate 
Senate to con- shall be the first branch of the legislature, 

sist of forty iin n i 

members, and shall consist oi forty members. 

52. (Am. 22, 1857.) Not fewer than 
bers^quonim. sixteen senators shall constitute a quorum 

for doing business ; but a smaller number 
may organize temporarily, adjourn from 
day to day, and compel the attendance of 
absent members. 

53. (Am. 22, 1857.) The general court 
shall, at its first session after each next pre- 
ceding special enumeration, divide the com- 
monwealth into forty districts of adjacent 

Tricts^etc. 18 " territory, each district to contain, as nearly 

as it may, one number of legal voters which 

shall be common to all the districts, ac- 

Towns and cording to that enumeration ; but no town 

wards whole. nor war( j f a c ity shall be divided therefor ; 
and such districts shall be formed, as nearly 
as they may, without uniting two counties, 
or parts of two or more counties, into one 
district. Each district shall elect one sena- 
tor, who shall have been an inhabitant of 

Qualifications this commonwealth five years at least im- 

of ssnators 

mediately preceding his election, and at 
the time of his election shall be an inhabi- 
tant of the district for which he is chosen ; 
and he shall cease to represent that sena- 
torial district when he shall cease to be an 
inhabitant of the commonwealth. 

54. (1780.) At least seven days before 



ORIGINAL CONSTITUTION. 39 

dred pounds at least, or of both to the amount of the 
same sum, and] who has not been an inhabitant of this 
commonwealth for the space of five years immediately 
preceding his election, and, at the time of his election, 
he shall be an inhabitant in the district for which he 
shall be chosen, 

VI. The senate shall have power to adjourn them- 
selves, provided such adjournments do not exceed two 
days at a time, 

VII. The senate shall choose its own president, 
appoint its own officers, and determine its own rules of 
proceedings, 

VIII. The senate shall be a court with full authority 
to hear and determine all impeachments made by the 
house of representatives, against any officer or officers 
of the commonwealth, for misconduct and mal-admin- 
istration in their offices. But previous to the trial of 
every impeachment the members of the senate shall 
respectively be sworn, truly and impartially to try and 
determine the charge in question, according to evidence. 
Their judgment, however, shall not extend further than 
t& removal from office and disqualification to hold or 
enjoy any place of honor, trust, or profit, under this 
commonwealth : but the party so convicted shall be, 
nevertheless, liable to indictment, trial, judgment, and 
punishment, according to the laws of the land, 

IX. Not less than sixteen members of the senate 
shall constitute a quorum for doing business. 



40 ADJUSTED CONSTITUTION. 

Cox. : Chap. I, Sec. II, Art. II. 

warning time. the Tue s( % of the state election, yearly 
and forever, the selectmen of each town in 
the several counties of this commonwealth 
shall call and warn in due course of law a 
meeting of the inhabitants of each town, to 
elect persons lo be senators. 

55t (1780.) The selectmen of each 
town shall preside at that meeting impar- 

Selectmenpre- ^jj^ an(] ghaU receive t h e votes of all the 

inhabitants of the town present and quali- 
fied to vote for senators, and shall sort and 
count the votes in open town meeting, and 
in presence of the town clerk, who shall 
make a fair record, in presence of the 
selectmen, and in open town meeting, of 
the name of every person voted for, and of 
the number of votes against his name ; and 
a fair copy of this record shall be attested 
by the selectmen and the town clerk, and 
shall be sealed up, and be directed to the 
secretary of the commonwealth, for the 
time being, with a superscription expressing 
the purport of the contents thereof, and be 
clerk returns delivered by the town clerk of each town 
votes. to {kg s h er iff f the county in which that 
tow r n lies, thirty days at least before the first 
Wednesday in January, annually ; or it 
shall be delivered into the secretary's office 
seventeen days at least before the first 
AVednesday in January ; and the sheriff of 
each county shall deliver all such certificates, 
by him received, into the secretary's office, 
seventeen days before the first Wednesday 
in January. 



ORIGINAL CONSTITUTION, 41 

CHAPTER I. 

Section IIL 

House of Representatives. 

Article I. There shall be, in the legislature of 
this commonwealth, a representation of the people, 
annually elected, and founded upon the principle of 
equality, 

II. [And in order to provide for a representation 
of the citizens of this commonwealth, founded upon the 
principle of equality, every corporate town containing 
one hundred and fifty ratable polls may elect one re- 
presentative ; every corporate town containing three 
hundred and seventy-five ratable polls may elect two 
representatives ; every corporate town containing six 
hundred ratable polls may elect three representatives ; 
and proceeding in that manner, making two hundred 
and twenty-five ratable polls the mean increasing num- 
ber for every additional representative. 

Provided, nevertheless, that each town now incor- 
porated, not having one hundred and fifty ratable polls, 
may elect one representative ; but no place shall here- 
after be incorporated with the privilege of electing a 
representative, unless there are within the same one 
hundred and fifty ratable polls.] 

And the house of representatives shall have power 
from time to time to impose fines upon such towns as 
shall neglect to choose and return members to the same, 

agreeably to this constitution. 

4* 



42 ADJUSTED CONSTITUTION. 



Cox. : Chap. I, Sec. II, Art. Ill, IV, VI, VII, VIII ; Am. XXIV. 

56. (1780.) That there may be a due 
convention of senators on the first Wednes- 

Governorand day in January annually, the governor with 

council exam- n .,, J n - /. 1 . in 

ine returns: nve councillors for the time being, shall, as 
summonses, soon as he may, examine the returned copies 
of such records ; and fourteen days before 
the said day he shall issue his summons to 
such persons as shall appear to be chosen 
by a plurality of voters, to attend on that 
day, and take their seats accordingly. 

57. (1780.) The senate shall be the 
judge of final judge of the elections, returns and 

elections of its 

own members, qualifications of its own members, as 
pointed out in the constitution ; and shall, 
on the first Wednesday in January annually, 
determine and declare who is elected by 
each district to be senator. 

58. (Am. 24, 1860.) Any vacancy in 
vacancies in the senate shall be filled by election by the 

the senate. p e0 ple of the unrepresented district, upon 
the order of a majority of the senators 
elected. 

59. (1780.) The senate shall have 
more thantwo power to adjourn itself ; but for not more 

days. than two days at a time. 

chooseitsoffi. 60 ' (1780.) The senate shall choose 

cers: establish its own president, appoint its own officers, 

and determine its own rules of proceedings. 

61. (1780.) The senate shall be a court 

with full authority to hear and determine 

Try impeach- a ^ impeachments made by the house of 

ments. representatives, against any officer of the 

commonwealth, for misconduct and bad 



ORIGINAL CONSTITUTION. 43 

The expenses of travelling to the general assembly, 
and returning home, once in every session, and no more, 
shall be paid by the government, out of the public 
treasury, to every member who shall attend as season- 
ably as he can, in the judgment of the house, and does 
not depart without leave. 

III. Every member of the house of representatives 
shall be chosen by written votes ; [and, for one year 
at least next preceding his election, shall have been- an 
inhabitant of, and have been seised in his own right of 
a freehold of the value of one hundred pounds within 
the town he shall be chosen to represent, or any ratable 
estate to the value of two hundred pounds ; and he shall 
cease to represent the said town immediately on his 
ceasing to be qualified as aforesaid.] 

IV. [Every male person, being twenty-one years 
of age, and resident in any particular town in this com- 
monwealth for the space of one year next preceding, 
having a freehold estate w r ithin the same town of the 
annual income of three pounds, or any estate of the 
value of sixty pounds, shall have a right to vote in the 
choice of a representative or representatives for the said 
town.] 

V. [The members of the house of representatives 
shall be chosen annually in the month of May, ten days 
at least before the last Wednesday of that month.] 

VI. The house of representatives shall be the grand 
inquest of this commonwealth ; and all impeachments 
made by them shall be heard and tried by the senate. 



44 



ADJUSTED CONSTITUTION. 



Cox. : Chap. I, Sec. II, Art. YIII ; Sec. HI, Art. I ; Am. XXI. 

administration in his office. But previous 
to the trial of every impeachment the mem- 
bers of the senate shall respectively be sworn , 
truly and impartially to try and determine 



Be sworn. 



Limitation 
of sentence. 



the charge m 



question, according to evi- 
dence. Their judgment, however, shall 
not extend further than to removal from 
office and disqualification to hold or enjoy 
any place of honor, trust, or profit, under 
this commonwealth ; but every person so 
convicted shall be, nevertheless, liable to 
indictment, trial, judgment and punishment, 
according to the laws of the land. 



REPRESENTATIVES . 



62. (1780.) There shall be, in the 
Representation legislature of this commonwealth, a repre- 

lepeope. gentat j on Q f t j ie p e0 p] e? annually elected, 

and founded upon the principle of equality. 

63. (Am. 21, 1857.) The house of re- 
presentatives shall consist of two hundred 
and forty members. 

64. (Am. 21, 1857.) Not fewer than 
one hundred representatives shall constitute 
a quorum for doing business ; but a smaller 
number may organize temporarily, adjourn 
from day to day, and compel the attendance 
of absent members. 

65. (Am. 21, 1857.) The member- 
ships shall be apportioned by the legislature 
at its first session after the return of each 
enumeration of the census from which the 
senatorial districts arG formed, and for the 



240 members 
10 Gray, 613. 



Quorum, 
100 members. 



ORIGINAL CONSTITUTION. 45 

VII. All money bills shall originate in the house 
of representatives ; but the senate may propose or con- 
cur with amendments, as on other bills. 

VIII. The house of representatives shall have 
power to adjourn themselves ; provided such adjourn- 
ment shall not exceed two days at a time. 

IX. [Not less than sixty members of the house of 
representatives shall constitute a quorum for doing 
business.] 

X. The house of representatives shall be the judge 
of the returns, elections, and qualifications of its own 
members, as pointed out in the constitution ; shall 
choose their own speaker; appoint their own officers, 
and settle the rules and orders of proceeding in their 
own house. They shall have authority to punish by 
imprisonment every person, not a member, who shall 
be guilty of disrespect to the house, by any disorderly 
or contemptuous behavior in its presence ; or who, in 
the town where the general court is sitting, and during 
the time of its sitting, shall threaten harm to the body 
or estate of any of its members, for any thing said or 
done in the house ; or who shall assault any of them 
therefor ; or who shall assault, or arrest, any witness, 
or other person, ordered to attend the house, in his 
way in going or returning ; or who shall rescue any 
person arrested by the order of the house. 

And no member of the house of representatives shall 
be arrested, or held to bail on mean process, during his 
going unto, returning from, or his attending the general 
assembly. 



46 ADJUSTED CONSTITUTION. 

Con. : Am. XXL 

same period of ten years : apportioned, as 
nearly as may be, equally according to the 
number of lawful voters in each county ; 
and the town of Cohasset, in the county of 
Norfolk, shall, for this purpose, as well as 
in the formation of districts, as herein pro- 
vided, be considered a part of the county of 
Plymouth ; and it shall be the duty of the 
Dividing board secretary of the commonwealth to certify 
certified to. to the board authorized to divide each county 
into representative districts, as soon as he 
can, after it is determined by the legislature, 
the number of representatives to which each 
county shall be entitled. The mayor and 
aldermen of the city of Boston, the county 
commissioners of other counties than Suf- 
folk ; or, instead of the mayor, aldermen, 
and commissioners specified, such board of 
special commissioners in each county, to be 
elected by the people of the county, or of 
the towns therein, as the law may direct; 
shall, on the first Tuesday of August next 
dfvision, or after each assignment of representatives to 
^i* August? eacn county, assemble at a shire town of 
Proceedin s tnen * respective counties, and proceed, as 
soon as they may, to divide each county 
into representative districts of contiguous 
territory, so as to apportion the representa- 
tion assigned to each county equally, as 
nearly as may be, according to the relative 
number of legal voters in the several dis- 
tricts of each county ; and such districts 
shall be so formed that no town nor ward of 



ORIGINAL CONSTITUTION. 47 

XI. The senate shall have the same powers in the 
like cases ; and the governor and council shall have the 
same authority to punish in like cases : provided, that 
no imprisonment on the warrant or order of the gover- 
nor, council, senate, or house of representatives, for 
either of the above described offences, be for a term 
exceeding thirty days. 

And the senate and house of representatives may try 
and determine all cases where their rights and privi- 
leges are concerned, and which, by the constitution, 
they have authority to try and determine, by commit- 
tees of their own members, or in such other way as 
they may respectively think best. 



CHAPTER II. 

Executive Power. 

Section I. 
Governor. 

Article I. There shall be a supreme executive 
magistrate, who shall be styled — The Governor of 
the Commonwealth of Massachusetts : and whose 
title shall be — His Excellency. 

II. The governor shall be chosen annually ; and 
no person shall be eligible to this office, unless, at the 
time of his election, he shall have been an inhabitant of 
this commonwealth for seven years next preceding ; 
and unless he shall at the same time be seised, in his 
own right, of a freehold, within the commonwealth, of 



48 ADJUSTED CONSTITUTION. 

Con. : Am. XXI ; Chap. I, Sec. HI, Art. Ill, II. 

a city shall be divided therefor, nor shall 
Residence any district be made which shall be entitled 

of a repre- J , . . 

sentative. to elect more than three representatives. 

Every representative, for one year at least 

i22Mass.595,598. next p rece( ji n g fog election, shall have been 

an inhabitant of the district for which he is 
chosen, and shall cease to represent that 
district when he shall cease to be an inhabit- 
beredfdes™" ant of the commonwealth. The districts in 
cribed, certified. eac ^ coun ty shall be numbered by the board 
creating them, and a description of each 
district with the number thereof and the 
number of legal voters therein, shall be re- 
turned by the board, to the secretary of the 
commonwealth, to the county treasurer of 
eaeh county, and to the clerk of each town 
in each district, to be filed and kept in 
their respective offices. The manner of 
calling and conducting the meetings for the 
choice of representatives, and of ascertain- 
ing their election, shall be prescribed by 
law ; but every representative shall be 
chosen by written votes. 

66. (1780.) The house of representa- 
tives shall have power, from time to time, 

ToW fln^ ay be to impose fines upon such towns as shall 
neglect to choose and return members to 
the house agreeably to this constitution. 

67. (1780.) The expenses of travelling 
Travelling to the general assembly, and returning 
expenses, home, once in every session, and no more, 

shall be paid by the government, out of the 
public treasury, to every member who shall 



ORIGINAL CONSTITUTION. 49 

the value of one thousand pounds ; [and unless he shall 
declare himself to be of the Christian religion.] 

III. Those persons who shall be qualified to vote 
for senators and representatives within the several towns 
of this commonwealth shall, at a meeting to be called 
for that purpose, on the [first Monday of April] an- 
nually, give in their votes for a governor, to the select- 
men, who shall preside at such meetings ; and the town 
clerk, in the presence and with the assistance of the 
selectmen, shall, in open town meeting, sort and count 
the votes, and form a list of the persons voted for, with 
the number of votes for each person against his name ; 
and shall make a fair record of the same in the town 
books, and a public declaration thereof in the said meet- 
ing ; and shall, in the. presence of the inhabitants, seal 
up copies of the said list, attested by him and the 
selectmen, and transmit the same to the sheriff of the 
county, thirty days at least before the [last Wednesday 
in May] ; and the sheriff shall transmit the same to the 
secretary's office, seventeen days at least before the 
said [last Wednesday in May] ; or the selectmen may 
cause returns of the same to be made to the office of 
the secretary of the commonwealth, seventeen days at 
least before the said day ; and the secretary shall lay 
the same before the senate and the house of represent- 
atives on the [last Wednesday in May] , to be by them 
examined ; and [in case of an election by a majority of 
all the votes returned] , the choice shall be by them 
declared and published ; [but if no person shall have a 
5 



50 ADJUSTED CONSTITUTION . 



Con. : Chap. I, Sec. Ill, Art. II, YI, Til, VIII, X. 

attend as seasonably as he can, in the judg- 
ment of the house, and does not depart 
without leave. 

68. (1780.) The house of representa- 
House alone fives shall be the grand inquest of this com- 
can impeach, m onwealth ; and all impeachments made by- 
it shall be heard and tried by the senate. 

69. (1780.) All money bills shall 
aris^m house, originate in the house of representatives ; 

but the senate may propose or concur with 
amendments, as on other bills. 

70. (1780.) The house of representa- 
Adjournfor fives shall have power to adjourn itself; 

n °two°days. an but for not more than two days at a time. 

71. (1780.) The house of representa- 
Be judge of tives shall be the judge of the returns, 

elections of its . J p 

members, elections, and qualifications of its own mem- 
bers, as pointed out in the constitution; 
Chooses its shall choose its own speaker, appoint its 
make? its rules. own °ffi cers > an d settle the rules and orders 
of proceeding in its own sessions. It shall 
Punishes dis- have authority to punish by imprisonment, 
rebpec ' every person, not a member, who shall be 
14 Gray, 226. guilty of disrespect to the house, by any 
disorderly or contemptuous behavior in its 
presence; or who, in the town where the 
general court is sitting, and during the time 
of its sitting, shall threaten harm to the 
body or estate of any of its members, for 
any thing said or done in the house ; or who 
shall assault any member therefor ; or who 
shall assault, or arrest any witness, or other 
person, ordered to attend the house, in his 



ORIGINAL CONSTITUTION. 51 

majority of votes, the house of representatives shall, by 
ballot, elect two out of four persons who had the highest 
number of votes, if so many shall have been voted for ; 
but, if otherwise, out of the number voted for ; and 
make return to the senate of the two persons so 
elected ; on which the senate shall proceed, by ballot, 
to elect one, who shall be declared governor.] 

IV. The governor shall have authority, from time 
to time, at his discretion, to assemble and call together 
the councillors of this commonwealth for the time being ; 
and the governor with the said councillors, or five of 
them at least, shall, and may, from time to time, hold 
and keep a council, for the ordering and directing the 
affairs of the commonwealth, agreeably to the constitu- 
tion and the laws of the land. 

V. The governor, with advice of council, shall 
have full power and authority, during the session of 
the general court, to adjourn or prorogue the same to 
any time the two houses shall desire ; [and to dissolve 
the same on the day next preceding the last Wednes- 
day in May ; and, in the recess of the said court, to 
prorogue the same from time to time, not exceeding 
ninety days in any one recess ;] and to call it together 
sooner than the time to which it may be adjourned or 
prorogued, if the welfare of the commonwealth shall 
require the same ; and in case of any infectious distemper 
prevailing in the place where the said court is next at 
any time to convene, or any other cause happening, 
whereby danger may arise to the health or lives of the 



52 ADJUSTED CONSTITUTION. 



Cox. : Ch. I, S. Ill, Ae. X, XI ; Ch. II, S. I, Ar. I, II. 

way in going, or returning ; or who shall 
rescue any person arrested by the order of 
the house. 

72. (1780.) No member of the house 
of representatives shall be arrested, nor held 

Privileges. to kail on mesne process, during his going 
unto, returning from, or attending, the 
general assembly. 

73. (1780. ) The senate shall have the 
Senate, gover- same powers in the like cases ; and the 

n °too n puuish Ci1 ' governor and council' shall have the same 
authority to punish in like cases ; provided 
H Gray, 226. that no imprisonment, on the warrant or 
order of the governor, council, senate, or 
house of representatives, for any one of the 
above described offences, be for a term ex- 
ceeding thirty days. 

74. (1780.) The senate and house of 
Trial at will of representatives may try and determine all 

body * cases where their rights and privileges are 
concerned, and which, by the constitution, 
they have authority to try and determine, 
by committees of their own members, or in 
such other way as they may, respectively, 
think best. 

GOVERNOR. 

75. (1780.) The supreme executive 
Governor, magistrate shall be styled, the Governor of 

the Commonwealth of Massachusetts ; and 
his title shall be, His Excellency. 

76. (1780.) The governor shall be 



Title. 



To be chosen 



annually, chosen annually ; and no person shall be 



ORIGINAL CONSTITUTION. 53 

members from their attendance, he may direct the ses- 
sion to be held at some other, the most convenient place 
within the state. 

[And the governor shall dissolve the said general 
court on the day next preceding the last Wednesday 
in May.] 

VI. In cases of disagreement between the two 
houses, with regard to the necessity, expediency, or 
time of adjournment or prorogation, the governor, with 
advice of the council, shall have the right to adjourn or 
prorogue the general court, not exceeding ninety days, 
as he shall determine the public good shall require. 

VII. The governor of this commonwealth, for the 
time being, shall be the commander-in-chief of the 
army and navy, and of all the military forces of the 
state, by sea and land ; and shall have full power, by 
himself, or by any commander, or other officer or 
officers, from time to time, to train, instruct, exercise, 
and govern the militia and navy ; and, for the special 
defence and safety of the commonwealth, to assemble 
in martial array, and put in warlike posture, the in- 
habitants thereof, and to lead and conduct them, and 
with them to encounter, repel, resist, expel, and pur- 
sue, by force of arms, as well by sea as by land, within 
or without the limits of this commonwealth, and also 
to kill, slay, and destroy, if necessary, and conquer, 
by all fitting ways, enterprises, and means whatsoever, 
all and every such person and persons as shall, at any 
time hereafter, in a hostile manner, attempt or enter- 

5* 



54 ADJUSTED CONSTITUTION. 

Coy. : Chap. II, Sec. I, Art. II, III. 

eligible to this office, unless, at the time of 
Qualifications, his election, he shall have been an inhabit- 
ant of this commonwealth for seven years 
next preceding : and unless he shall at the 
same time be seized, in his own right, of a 
freehold, within the commonwealth, of the 
value of three thousand four hundred and 
ninety five dollars and fourteen cents. 

77. (1780.) Those persons who shall 
fen^if h?have ^ e qualified to vote for senators and repre- 
a pl votes 7 ° f sen tatives within the several towns of this 
commonwealth shall, at the yearly meeting 
Par. 49. for the election of state officers, give in their 
votes for a governor, to the selectmen, who 
shall preside at such meetings ; and the 
town clerk, in the presence and with the 
assistance of the selectmen, shall, in open 
town meeting, sort and count the votes, and 
form a list of the persons voted for, with 
the number of votes for each person against 
his name ; and shall make a fair record of 
the same in the town books, and a public 
declaration thereof in the said meeting ; 
and shall, in the presence of the inhabitants, 
seal up copies of the said list, attested by 
Returns. hi m an( l the selectmen, and transmit the 
same to the sheriff of the county, thirty 
days at least before the first Wednesday 
of January ; and the sheriff shall trans- 
mit the same to the secretary's office, 
seventeen days at least before the first 
Wednesday of January ; or the selectmen 
may cause returns of the same to be 



ORIGINAL CONSTITUTION. 55 

prise the destruction, invasion, detriment, or annoy- 
ance of this commonwealth; and to use and exercise, 
over the army and navy, and over the militia in actual 
service, the law-martial, in time of w r ar or invasion, 
and also in time of rebellion, declared by the legis- 
lature to exist, as occasion shall necessarily require ; 
and to take and surprise, by all ways and means what- 
soever, all and every such person or persons, with their 
ships, arms, ammunition, and other goods, as shall, in 
a hostile manner, invade, or attempt the invading, 
conquering, or annoying this commonwealth ; and that 
the governor be intrusted with all these and other 
powers, incident to the offices of captain-general and 
commander-in-chief, and admiral, to be exercised agree- 
ably to the rules and regulations of the constitution, 
and the laws of the land, and not otherwise. 

Provided, that the said governor shall not, at any 
time hereafter, by virtue of any power by this con- 
stitution granted, or hereafter to be granted to him by 
the legislature, transport any of the inhabitants of this 
commonwealth, or oblige them to march out of the 
limits of the same, without their free and voluntary 
consent, or the consent of the general court ; except 
so far as may be necessary to march or transport them 
by land or water, for the defence of such part of the 
state to which they cannot otherwise conveniently have 
access. 

VIII. The power of pardoning offences, except 
such as persons may be convicted of before the senate 



56 ADJUSTED CONSTITUTION. 



Cox. : Chap. II, S. I, Art. IV ; S. II, Ab. II ; S. I, An. Y. 

made to the office of the secretary of the 
commonwealth, seventeen days at least be- 
fore that day ; and the secretary shall lay 
the same before the senate and the house of 
representatives on the first Wednesday of 
January, to be by them examined, and the 
choice shall be by them declared and pub- 
lished. 

78. (1780.) The governor shall have 
Power of authority, from time to time, at his dis- 

and council, cretion, to call together the councillors of 
this commonwealth for the time being ; and 
the governor, with the said councillors, or 

Par. 106, no. five of them at least, shall, from time to 
time, hold and keep a council for the order- 
ing and directing of the affairs of the com- 
monwealth, agreeably to the constitution 
and the laws of the land. 

79. (1780.) The governor when pre- 
President sent shall be the president of the council, 
of council, kuf. sna ]i have no vote in council. 

80. (1780.) The governor, with ad- 
vice of the council, shall have full power 
and authority, during the session of the 

Mayadjonrn general court, to adjourn the same to any 
general court time the two houses shall desire; and to 
"andconvene! ca ^ ^ i nto session sooner than the time to 
which it may be adjourned, if the welfare 
of the commonwealth shall require its sit- 
ting ; and, in case any infectious disorder 
prevail in the place where the general court 
is next at any time to convene, or any 
other cause happen whereby danger may 



ORIGINAL CONSTITUTION. 57 

by an impeachment of the house, shall be in the gover- 
nor, by and with the advice of council ; but no charter 
of pardon, granted by the governor, with advice of the 
council before conviction, shall avail the party pleading 
the same, notwithstanding any general or particular 
expressions contained therein, descriptive of the offence 
or offences intended to be pardoned. 

IX. All judicial officers, [the attorney-general,] 
the solicitor-general, [all sheriffs,] coroners, [and 
registers of probate,] shall be nominated and appointed 
by the governor, by and with the advice and consent 
of the council ; and every such nomination shall be 
made by the governor, and made at least seven days 
prior to such appointment. 

X. The captains and subalterns of the militia shall 
be elected by the written votes of the train-band and 
alarm list of their repective companies, [of twenty-one 
years of age and upwards ;] the field officers of regi- 
ments shall be elected by the written votes of the cap- 
tains and subalterns of their respective regiments ; the 
brigadiers shall be elected, in like manner, by the field 
officers of their respective brigades ; and such officers, 
so elected, shall be commissioned by the governor, who 
shall determine their rank. 

The legislature shall, by standing laws, direct the 
time and manner of convening the electors, and of 
collecting votes, and certifying to the governor, the 
officers elected. 

The major-generals shall be appointed by the senate 



58 ADJUSTED CONSTITUTION. 



Cox. : Chap. II, Sec. I, Art. V, VI, TIL 

arise to the health or lives of the members 
from their attendance, he may direct the 
session to be held at some other, the most 
convenient place within the state. 

81, (1780.) In cases of disagreement 
between the two houses, with regard to the 

Governor and necessity, expediency, or time of adjourn- 

council may J1 * • / ' *> 

adjourn legisia-ment, the governor, with advice of the 

a>s ' council, shall have a right to adjourn the 

general court, not exeeeding ninety days, 

as he shall determine the public good shall 

require. 

82. (1780.) The governor of this com- 
monwealth, for the time being, shall be the 

Com ?h£f. er in commander in chief of the army and navy, 
and of all the military forces of the state, 
by sea and land ; and shall have full power, 
by himself, or by any commander, or other 
officer or officers, from time to time, to 
train, instruct, exercise and govern the 
militia and navy; and, for the special de- 
fence and safety of the commonwealth, to 
assemble in martial array, and put in war- 
like posture, the inhabitants thereof, and to 
lead and conduct them, and with them to 
encounter, repel, resist, expel, and pursue, 
by force of arms, as well by sea as by land, 
within or without the limits of this common- 
wealth, and also to kill, slay, and destroy, 
-if necessary, and conquer, by all fitting 
ways, enterprises, and means whatever, all 
such persons as shall, at any time hereafter, 
in a hostile manner, attempt the destruc- 



ORIGINAL CONSTITUTION. 59 

and house of representatives, each having a negative 
upon the other : and be commissioned by the governor. 

And if the electors of brigadiers, field officers, cap- 
tains or subalterns, shall neglect or refuse to make 
such elections, after being duly notified, according to 
the laws for the time being, then the governor, with 
advice of council, shall appoint suitable persons to fill 
such offices. 

[And no officer, duly commissioned to command in 
the militia, shall be removed from his office, but by 
the address of both houses to the governor, or by fair 
trial in court-martial, pursuant to the laws of the com- 
monwealth for the time being.] 

The commanding officers of regiments shall appoint 
their adjutants and quartermasters ; the brigadiers their 
brigade-majors ; and the major-generals their aids ; 
and the governor shall appoint the adjutant-general. 

The governor, with advice of council, shall appoint 
all officers of the continental army, whom by the con- 
federation of the United States it is provided that this 
commonwealth shall appoint, as also all officers of 
forts and garrisons. 

The divisions of the militia into brigades, regiments, 
and companies, made in pursuance of the militia laws 
now in force, shall be considered as the proper divisions 
of the militia of this commonwealth, until the same 
shall be altered in pursuance of some future law. 

XI. No moneys shall be issued out of the treasury 
of this commonwealth, and disposed of (except such 



60 ADJUSTED CONSTITUTION. 

Con. : Chap. II, Sec. I, Art. VII, VIII. 

tion, invasion, detriment, or annoyance of 
this commonwealth ; and to use and exer- 
cise, over the army and navy, and over the 
militia in actual service, martial law in time 
of war or invasion, and also in time of re- 
bellion, declared by the legislature to exist, 
as occasion shall necessarily require ; and 
to take and surprise, by all ways and means 
whatever, all such persons, with their ships, 
arms, ammunition, and other goods, as shall, 
in a hostile manner, invade, or attempt the 
invading, conquering, or annoying of this 
commonwealth ; and the governor shall be 
intrusted with all these and other powers, 
incident to the offices of commander in chief, 
and admiral, to be exercised agreeably to 
the rules and regulations of the constitution, 
and the laws of the land, and not otherwise. 
83. (1780.) The governor shall not, 
Limitation. a * anv time hereafter, by virtue of any 
power by this constitution granted, or here- 
after to be granted to him by the legisla- 
ture, transport any of the inhabitants of 
this commonwealth, or oblige them to march 
out of the limits of the same, without their 
free and voluntary consent, or the consent 
of the general court ; except so far as may 
be necessary to march or transport them by 
land or water, for the defence of a part of 
the state to which they cannot otherwise 
conveniently have access. 
Governor and 84. (1780.) The power of pardoning 

council may ev* i i 

pardon offences, onences, except such as persons may be 



ORIGINAL CONSTITUTION. 61 

sums as may be appropriated for the redemption of 
bills of credit or treasurer's notes, or for the payment 
of interest arising thereon) but by warrant under the 
hand of the governor for the time being, with the 
advice and consent of the council, for the necessary 
defence and support of the commonwealth ; and for the 
protection and preservation of the inhabitants thereof, 
agreeably to the acts and resolves of the general court. 

XII. All public boards, the commissary-general, 
all superintending officers of public magazines and 
stores, belonging to this commonwealth, and all com- 
manding officers of forts and garrisons within the same, 
shall once in every three months, officially, and with- 
out requisition, and at other times, when required by 
the gover]QLor, deliver to him an account of all goods, 
stores, provisions, ammunition, cannon with their ap- 
pendages, and small arms with their accoutrements, 
and of all other public property whatever under their 
care respectively ; distinguishing the quantity, number, 
quality and kind of each, as particularly as may be ; 
together with the condition of such forts and garrisons ; 
and the said commanding officer shall exhibit to the 
governor, when required by him, true and exact plans 
of such forts, and of the land and sea or harbor or 
harbors, adjacent. 

And the said boards, and all public officers, shall 
communicate to the governor, as soon as may be after 
receiving the same, all letters, despatches, and intel- 
ligences of a public nature, which shall be directed to 
them respectively. 



62 ADJUSTED CONSTITUTION, 

Cox. : Chap. II, Sec. I, Art. Yin, IX, X ; Am. IV, V. 

convicted of before the senate by an im- 
peachment of the house, shall be in the 

But not before governor, by and with the advice of council ; 
but no charter of pardon, granted by the 

109 Mass. 323. governor, with advice of the council before 
conviction, shall avail the person pleading 
the same, notwithstanding any general or 
particular expressions contained therein, 
descriptive of the offence or offences intend- 
ed to be pardoned. 

85. (1780.) All judicial officers, the 
, T . solictor general, and the coroners, shall be 

Nominates 

judicial and nominated and appointed by the governor, 
by and with the advice and consent of the 
council ; and every such nomination shall 
be made by the governor, and made at least 
seven days prior to such appointment. 

86. (Am. 4,1821.) Notaries public shall 
Notariespubiic.be appointed by the governor, in the same 

manner as judicial officers are appointed, 
and shall hold their offices during seven 
years, unless sooner removed by the gover- 
nor, with the consent of the council, upon 
the address of both houses of the legislature. 

87. (1780, Am. 5, 1821.) The cap- 
Miiitia officers, tains and subalterns of the militia shall be 

how elected. e i ecte( j by the written votes of the train 
band and alarm list of their respective com- 
Mmtary voters, panies ; and members under, as those above 
the age of twenty-one years, shall have a 
right to vote. The field officers of regi- 
ments shall be elected by the written votes 
of the captains and subalterns of their re- 



ORIGINAL CONSTITUTION. 63 

XIII. As the public good requires that the gov- 
ernor should not be under the influence of any of the 
members of the general court by a dependence on them 
for his support, that he should in all cases act with 
freedom for the benefit of the public, that he should 
not have his attention necessarily diverted form that ob- 
ject to his private concerns, and that he should main- 
tain the dignity of the commonwealth in the character 
of its chief magistrate, it is necessary that he should 
have an honorable stated salary, of a fixed and per- 
manent value, amply sufficient for those purposes, and 
established by standing laws : and it shall be among 
the first acts of the general court, after the commence- 
ment of this constitution, to establish such salary by 
law accordingly. 

Permanent and honorable salaries shall also be es- 
tablished by law for the justices of the supreme judicial 
court. 

And if it shall be found that any of the salaries afore- 
said, so established, are insufficient, they shall, from 
time to time, be enlarged, as the general court shall 
judge proper. 



CHAPTER II. 

Section II. 

Lieutenant- Governor. 

Article I. There shall be annually elected a lieu- 
tenant-governor of the commonwealth of Massachusetts, 



64 ADJUSTED CONSTITUTION, 



Con. : Chap. II, Sec. I, Art. X ; Am. IY ; Ch. II, S. I, An. X. 

spective regiments : the brigadiers shall be 
elected in like manner by the field officers 
of their respective brigades ; and those 
How m officers, so elected, shall be commissioned 
by the governor, who shall determine their 



commissioned. 

uy me & . 

rankings . 

88. (1780.) The legislature shall, by 
standing laws, direct the time and manner 
of convening the electors, and of collecting 

certified. 8 votes, and of certifying to the governor, 
the officers elected. 

89. (1780.) The major generals shall 
MajorGenerais.be appointed by the senate and house of 

representatives, each having a negative upon 
the other ; and be commissioned by the 
governor. 

90. (Am. 4, 1821.) Whenever the ex- 
igencies of the commonwealth shall require 

commissary the appointment of a commissary general, 
general. ne sna }} j^ nominated, appointed and com- 
missioned, in such manner as the legislature 
may, by law, prescribe. 

91. (Am. 4, 1821.) All officers com- 
missioned to command in the militia, may 

~ . be removed from office in such manner as 

Kemovals. ,'■,.., , , ., 

the legislature may, by law, prescribe. 

92. (1880.) If the electors of briga- 
diers, or of lower officers, shall neglect or 
refuse to make their elections, after being 
dulv notified, according to the laws for the 

Vacancies, . " , . , & . 

how filled, time being, then the governor, with advice 
of council, shall appoint suitable persons to 
fill such offices. 



ORIGINAL CONSTITUTION. 65 

whose title shall be — His Honor; and who shall be 
qualified, in point of [religion,] property, and resi- 
dence in the commonwealth, in the same manner with 
the governor ; and the day and manner of his election, 
and the qualifications of the electors, shall be the same as 
are required in the election of a governor. The return 
of the votes for this officer, and the declaration of his 
election, shall be in the same manner ; [and if no one 
person shall be found to have a majority of all the votes 
returned, the vacancy shall be filled by the senate and 
house of representatives, in the same manner as the 
governor is to be elected, in case no one person shall 
have a majority of the votes of the people to be gov- 
ernor.] 

II. The governor, and in his absence the lieutenant- 
governor, shall be president of the council, but shall 
have no vote in council ; and the lieutenant-governor 
shall always be a member of the council, except when 
the chair of the governor shall be vacant. 

III. Whenever the chair of the governor shall be 
vacant, by reason of his death, or absence from the 
commonwealth, or otherwise, the lieutenant-governor, 
for the time being, shall, during such vacancy, per- 
form all the duties incumbent upon the governor, and 
shall have and exercise all the powers and authorities, 
which by this constitution the governor is vested with, 
when personally present. 

6* 



66 



ADJUSTED CONSTITUTION. 



Naval officers. 



Money drawn 
from the 
treasury. 

13 Allen, 593. 



Cox. : Chap. II, S. I, As. X ; S. IV, An. I ; S.I, An. XI, XII. 

93. (1780.) The commanding officers 
of regiments shall appoint their adjutants 

now Appointed, and quartermasters ; the brigadiers their 
brigade majors ; and the major generals 
their aids ; and the governor shall appoint 
the adjutant general. 

94. (1780.) Naval officers shall be 
chosen annually, by joint ballot of the sena- 
tors and representatives in one room. 

95. (1780.) Except such sums as may 
be appropriated for the redemption of bills 
of credit or of treasurer's notes, or for the 
payment of interest arising thereon, no 
moneys shall be issued out of the treasury 
of this commonwealth and disposed of for 
the necessary defence and support of the 
commonwealth, and for the protection and 
preservation of the inhabitants thereof, 
agreeably to the acts and resolves of the 
general court, but by warrant under the 
hand of the governor for the time being, 
with the advice and consent of the council. 

96. (1780.) All public boards, the com- 
missary general, all superintending officers 
of public magazines and stores, belonging 
to this commonwealth, and all commanding 
officers of forts and garrisons within the 
same, shall, once in every three months, 
officially and without requisition, and at 
other times, when required by the governor, 
deliver to him an account of all goods, 
stores, provisions, ammunition, cannon 
w r ith their appendages, and small arms with 



Quarterly 
returns. 



ORIGINAL CONSTITUTION. 67 

CHAPTER II. 

Section III. 

Council, and the Manner of settling Elections by the Legis- 
lature. 

Article I, There shall be a council for advising 
the governor in the executive part of the government, 
to consist of [nine] persons besides the lieutenant-gov- 
ernor, whom the governor, for the time being, shall 
have full power and authority, from time to time, at his 
discretion, to assemble and call together; and the 
governor, with the said councillors, or five of them at 
least, shall and may, from time to time, hold and keep 
a council, for the ordering and directing the affairs of 
the commonwealth, according to the laws of the land. 

II. [Nine councillors shall be annually chosen from 
among the persons returned for councillors and sena- 
tors, on the last Wednesday in May, by the joint bal- 
lot of the senators and representatives assembled in one 
room ; and in case there shall not be found upon the 
first choice, the whole number of nine persons who will 
accept a seat in the council, the deficiency shall be 
made up by the electors aforesaid from among the 
people at large ; and the number of senators left shall 
constitute the senate for the year. The seats of the 
persons thus elected from the senate, and accepting 
the trust, shall be vacated in the senate.] 

III. The councillors, in the civil arrangements of 
the commonwealth, shall have rank next after the 
lieutenant governor. 



68 ADJUSTED CONSTITUTION. 

Cox. ; Chap. II, Sec. I, Art. XII, XIII. 

their accoutrements, and of all other pub- 
lic property whatever under their care, re- 
spectively ; distinguishing the quantity, 
number, quality, and kind of each, as par- 
ticularly as they may ; together with the 
condition of such forts and garrisons ; and 
every commanding officer shall exhibit to 
the governor, when required by him, true 
and exact plans of such forts, and of the 
land and sea, or harbor or harbors, adjacent. 

97. (1780.) And the said boards, and 
all public officers, shall communicate to the 
governor, as soon as they can after re- 
ceiving the same, all letters, dispatches, 
and intelligences of a public nature, w r hich 
shall be directed to them respectively. 

98, (1780.) As the public good re- 
quires that the governor should not be under 
the undue influence of any of the members 
of the general court, by a dependence on 
them for his support, that he should in all 
cases act with freedom for the benefit of 
the public, that he should not have his at- 
tention necessarily diverted from that ob- 
ject to his private concerns, and that he 
should maintain the dignity of the com- 
monwealth in the character of its chief 
magistrate, it is necessary that he should 

salaried have an honorable stated salary, of a fixed 
and permanent value, amply sufficient for 
those purposes, and established by standing 
laws ; and it shall be among the first acts 
of the general court, after this constitution 



ORIGINAL CONSTITUTION. 69 

IV. [Not more than two councillors shall be 
chosen out of any one district of this commonwealth.] 

V. The resolutions and advice of the council shall 
be recorded in a register, and signed by the members 
present ; and this record may be called for at any time 
by either house of the legislature ; and any member of 
the council may insert his opinion, contrary to the 
resolution of the majority. 

VI. Whenever the office of the governor and lieu- 
tenant-governor shall be vacant, by reason of death, 
absence, or otherwise, then the council, or the major 
part of them, shall, during such vacancy, have full 
power and authority to do, and execute, all and every 
such acts, matters, and things, as the governor or the 
lieutenant-governor might or could, by virtue of this 
constitution, do or execute, if they, or either of them, 
were personally present. 

VII. [And whereas the elections appointed to be 
made, by this constitution, on the last Wednesday in 
May annually, by the two houses of the legislature, 
may not be completed on that day, the said elections 
may be adjourned from day to day until the same shall 
be completed. And the order of elections shall be as 
follows : the vacancies in the senate, if any, shall first 
be filled up ; the governor and lieutenant-governor 
shall then be elected, provided there should be no 
choice of them by the people ; and afterwards the two 
houses shall proceed to the election of the council.] 



70 



ADJUSTED CONSTITUTION. 



Con.: Ch.II. S. I, Ar.XIII ; Ch. YI, An. II ; Ch. II, S. II, Ar. I, II. 

has come into force, to establish such salary 
by law accordingly. 

99 » (1780.) Permanent and honorable 
salaries shall also be established by law for 
Sup sa?aned dges t-he justices of the supreme judicial court. 

100. (1780.) If it shall be found, that 
any of the salaries aforesaid, so established, 
are insufficient, they shall, from time to 
time, be enlarged, as the general court 
shall judge proper. 

101. (1780.) The governor shall hold 
no office but his governorship and its const!- 

governorship, tutional positions. He shall have no office, 
salary nor pension from any other state, 
nation, government nor power during his 
term of office. 



Enlarged if 
insufficient. 



Only his 



LIEUTENANT GOVERNOR. 

102. (1780.) There shall be annually 
elected a lieutenant governor of the com- 
monwealth of Massachusetts; whose title 

Lieutenant shall be, His Honor ; and who shall be 
s titte and* qualified, in point of property, and residence 
qualifications. j n th e commonwealth, in the same manner 
as the governor ; and the day and manner 
of his election, and the qualifications of the 
electors, shall be the same as are required 
in the election of a governor. The return 
How chosen. f the votes of this officer, and the decla- 
ration of his election, shall be made as are 
those for governor. 

103. (1780.) In the absence of the 
governor, the lieutenant governor shall be 



ORIGINAL CONSTITUTION. 71 

CHAPTER II. 
Section IV. 

Secretary, Treasurer, Commissary , etc. 

Article I. [The secretary, treasurer, and receiver- 
general, and the commissary-general, notaries public, 
and] naval officers, shall be chosen annually, by joint 
ballot of the senators and representatives in one room. 
And, that the citizens of this commonwealth may be 
assured, from time to time, that the moneys remaining 
in the public treasury, upon the settlement and liquida- 
tion of the public accounts, are their property, no man 
shall be eligible as treasurer and receiver-general more 
than five years successively. 

II. The records of the commonwealth shall be kept 
in the office of the secretary, who may appoint his dep- 
uties, for whose conduct he shall be accountable; and 
he shall attend the governor and council, the senate 
and house of representatives, in person, or by his 
deputies, as they shall respectively require. 



CHAPTER III. 

Judiciary Power. 
Article I. The tenure, that all commission officers 
shall by law have in their offices, shall be expressed in 
their respective commissions. All judicial officers, 
duly appointed, commissioned, and sworn, shall hold 
their offices during good behavior, excepting such con- 



72 ADJUSTED CONSTITUTION. 



Cox: Ch.II,S.II,Art.III; Ch. VI, Ar.II ; Ch.II, S. Ill, Ar.I, III. 
President of president of the council, and shall always 

council and a | -i P ,, M , 

member, be a member or the council, except when 
the chair of the governor shall be vacant. 

104. (1780.) Whenever the chair of 
the governor shall be vacant, by reason of 
Lieut gov ^is death, or absence from the common- 
acting wealth, or otherwise, the lieutenant gov- 
ernor, for the time being, shall, during the 
vacancy, perform all the duties incumbent 
upon the governor, and shall have and 
exercise all the powers and authorities, with 
which by this constitution the governor is 
vested, when personally present. 

l hisiieu 105# ( 1780 The official restrictions 
governorship.' of the lieutenant governor shall be like 

(See TT 101.) ^^ Qf ^ governor . 

COUNCIL : SETTLING ELECTIONS. 

106. (1780.) There shall be a council 
for advising the governor in the executive 
part of the government, to consist of eight 

council, eight persons besides the lieutenant governor, 
members. wnom the governor for the time being shall 
at his discretion have full power and author- 
ity from time to time to call together ; and 
the governor, with the said councillors, or 
five of them at least, shall from time to 
time hold and keep a council, for the order- 
ing and directing of the affairs of the com- 
monwealth, according to the laws of the 
land. 

107. (1780.) The councillors, in the 
Rank. oi^v^il arrangements of the commonwealth, 



ORIGINAL CONSTITUTION. 73 

cerning whom there is different provision made in 
this constitution ; provided, nevertheless, the governor, 
with consent of the council, may remove them upon the 
address of both houses of the legislature. 

II. Each branch of the legislature, as well as the 
governor and council, shall have authority to require 
the opinions of the justices of the supreme judicial court, 
upon important questions of law, and upon solemn 
occasions. 

III. In order that the people may not suffer from 
the long continuance in place of any justice of the peace 
who shall fail of discharging the important duties of his 
office with ability or fidelity, all commissions of justices 
of the peace shall expire and become void, in the term 
of seven years from their respective dates ; and, upon 
the expiration of any commission, the same may, if 
necessary, be renewed, or another person appointed, 
as shall most conduce to the well-being of the common- 
wealth. 

IV. The judges of probate of wills, and for granting 
letters of administration, shall hold their courts at such 
place or places, on fixed days, as the convenience of 
the people shall require ; and the legislature shall, from 
time to time, hereafter, appoint such times and places ; 
until which appointments, the said courts shall be holden 
at the times and places which the respective judges 
shall direct. 

V. All causes of marriage, divorce, and alimony, 
and all appeals from the judges of probate, shall be 

7 



74 



ADJUSTED CONSTITUTION. 



Con. : Am. XVI. 



shall have rank next after the lieutenant 



Districts, 

legislature 

makes. 



108, (Am. 16, 1855.) Eight coun- 
chosen yearly cillors shall be annually chosen by such in- 
by people, habitants of this commonwealth as are 

i22Mass.595,598. ( l ualified to vote for governor. The elec- 
tion of councillors shall be determined by 
the same rule that is required in the elec- 
tion of governor. The legislature, at its 
first session after this amendment shall have 
been adopted, and at its first session after 
the next state census shall have been taken, 
and at its first session after each decennial 
state census thereafter, shall divide the 
commonwealth into eight districts of 
contiguous territory, each containing a 
number of inhabitants as nearly equal 
practicable, without dividing any town, 
ward of a city, and each entitled to elect 
one councillor : but if at any time the con- 
stitution shall provide for the division of 
the commonwealth into forty senatorial 
districts, then the legislature shall so ar- 
range the councillor districts, that each 
district shall consist of five contiguous 
senatorial districts, as they shall be from 
time to time established by the legislature. 
No person shall be eligible to the office of 
councillor who has not been an inhabitant 
of the commonwealth for the term of five 
years immediately preceding his election. 
The day and manner of the election, the 
return of the votes, and the declaration of 



as 

or 



Who may t>e 
.councillors. 



ORIGINAL CONSTITUTION. 75 

heard and determined by the governor and council, until 
the legislature shall, by law, make other provision. 



CHAPTER IV. 

Delegates to Congress. 
The delegates of this commonwealth to the congress 
of the United States, shall, some time in the month of 
June, annually, be elected by the joint ballot of the 
senate and house of representatives, assembled together 
in one room ; to serve in congress for one year, to 
commence on the first Monday in November then next 
ensuing, They shall have commissions under the hand 
of the governor, and the great seal of the common- 
wealth ; but may be recalled at any time within the 
year, and others chosen and commissioned, in the same 
manner, in their stead. 



CHAPTER V. 

The University at Cambridge and Encouragement 
of Literature, etc. 

Section I. 

The University. 

Article I. Whereas our wise and pious ancestors, 

so early as the year one thousand six hundred and 

thirty-six, laid the foundation of Harvard College, in 



76 



ADJUSTED CONSTITUTION. 



Cox. : Am. XXV, XVI. 



Day of election 



Vacancy 
in council. 



Organization 

with 
promptness. 



Summonses. 



Vacancy of 

governor, 

lieut. governor 

councillors. 

See IT 109. 



the said elections, shall be the same as are 
required in the election of governor. 

109. (Am. 25, 1860.) In case of a 
vacancy in the council, the senate and 
house of representatives shall, by concur- 
rent vote, choose some eligible person from 
the people of the district wherefrom such 
vacancy occurs, to fill that office. If the 
vacancy shall happen when the legislature 
is not in session, the governor, with the 
advice and consent of the council, may fill 
the vacancy by appointment of some eligi- 
ble person. 

110. (Am. 16, 1855.) That there may 
be no delay in the organization of the 
government on the first Wednesday of 
January, the governor, with at least five 
councillors for the time being, shall, as soon 
as he can, examine the returned copies of 
the records for the election of governor, lieu- 
tenant governor and councillors ; and ten 
days before the first Wednesday in January 
he shall issue his summons to such persons 
as appear to be chosen, to attend on that 
day to be qualified accordingly ; and the 
secretary shall lay the returns before the 
senate and house of representatives on the 
first Wednesday in January, to be by them 
examined ; and if any one of those officers 
is elected, the choice shall be by them de- 
clared and published : if any one is not 
elected, the legislature shall proceed to fill 
each vacancy in the manner provided in the 
constitution for the choice of each officer. 






ORIGINAL CONSTITUTION. 77 

which university many persons of great eminence have, 
by the blessing of God, been initiated in those arts and 
sciences which qualified them for public employments, 
both in church and state ; and whereas the encourage- 
ment of arts and sciences, and all good literature, tends 
to the honor of God, the advantage of the Christian 
religion, and the great benefit of this and the other 
United States of America, — it is declared, that the 
President and Fellows of HarVard College, in 
their corporate capacity, and their successors in that 
capacity, their officers and servants, shall have, hold, 
use, exercise, and enjoy, all the powers, authorities, 
rights, liberties, privileges, immunities, and franchises, 
which they now have, or are entitled to have, hold, 
use, exercise, and enjoy ; and the same are hereby 
ratified and confirmed unto them, the said president 
and fellows of Harvard College, and to their succes- 
sors, and to their officers and servants, respectively, 
forever. 

II. And whereas there have been at sundry times, 
by divers persons, gifts, grants, devises of houses, 
lands, tenements, goods, chattels, legacies, and con- 
veyances, heretofore made, either to Harvard College 
in Cambridge, in New England, or to the president 
and fellows of Harvard College, or to the said college 
by some other description, under several charters, suc- 
cessively ; it is declared, that all the said gifts, grants, 
devises, legacies, and conveyances, are hereby forever 
confirmed unto the president and fellows of Harvard 
7* 



78 ADJUSTED CONSTITUTION, 



Con. : Chap. II, Sec. Ill, Art. V, YI ; Am, VIII, XVIL 

111. (1780.) The resolutions and ad- 
vice of the council shall be recorded in a 
Register, register, and signed by the members pre- 
sent ; and this record may be called for, at 
any time, by either house of the legislature ; 
and any member of the council may insert 
his opinion, contrary to the resolution of 
the majority. 

112.- (1780.) Whenever the office of 
Take place of ^ ne governor and lieutenant governor shall 
governor. b e vacant, by reason of death, absence, or 
otherwise, then the council, or the major 
part of it, shall, during that vacancy, have 
full power and authority to do all such 
acts and things, as the governor or the 
lieutenant governor might, by virtue of this 
constitution, do, if either of them were 
personally present. 

113. (Am. 8, 1821.) A councillor must 
Shall quit, if. quit his councillorship if he accept a judge- 
ship in any court but the court of sessions. 

SECKETARY AND OTHER OFFICERS. 

114. (Am. 17, 1855.) The secretary, 
Secretary, treasurer, auditor, and attorney general, 

tor, attorney- shall be chosen annually, on the day in 
gen peopie! the November prescribed for the choice of 
see it 49. governor; and each person then chosen, 
duly qualified in other respects, shall hold 
his office for the term of one year from the 
third Wednesday in January next there- 
after, and until another is chosen and quali- 
fied in his stead. The qualifications of the 



OKIGINAL CONSTITUTION. 79 

College, and to their successors in the capacity afore- 
said, according to the true intent and meaning of the 
donor or donors, grantor or grantors, devisor or de- 
visors. 

III. And whereas, by an act of the general court 
of the colony of Massachusetts Bay, passed in the year 
one thousand six hundred and forty-two, the governor 
and deputy-governor, for the time being, and all the 
magistrates of that jurisdiction, were, with the presi- 
dent, and a number of the clergy in the said act des- 
cribed, constituted the overseers of Harvard College ; 
and it being necessary, in this new constitution of 
government to ascertain who shall be deemed succes- 
sors to the said governor, deputy-governor, and magis- 
trates ; it is declared, that the governor, lieutenant- 
governor, council, and senate of this commonwealth, are, 
and shall be deemed, their successors, who, with the 
president of Harvard College, for the time being, to- 
gether with the ministers of the congregational church- 
es in the towns of Cambridge, Watertown, Charles- 
town, Boston, Koxbury, and Dorchester, mentioned in 
the said act, shall be, and hereby are, vested with all 
the powers and authority belonging, or in any way 
appertaining to the overseers of Harvard College ; 
provided, that nothing herein shall be construed to 
prevent the legislature of this commonwealth from mak- 
ing such alterations in the government of the said 
university, as shall be conducive to its advantage, and 
the interest of the republic of letters, in as full a man- 



80 ADJUSTED CONSTITUTION, 

Cox. : Am. XVII. 

voters, the manner of the election, the re- 
turn of the votes, and the declaration of 
the election, shall be such as are required 
in the election of governor, In case of a 
Vacancy, failure to elect any one of these officers on 
the day in November prescribed, or in case 
of the decease, in the mean time, of the 
person elected, that officer shall be chosen 
on or before the third Wednesday in Janu- 
ary next thereafter, from the two persons 
who had the highest number of votes for 
the office on the day in November pre- 
scribed, by joint ballot of the senators and 
representatives, in one room ; and if the 
office of secretary, or treasurer, or auditor, 
or attorney general, shall become vacant, 
during an annual or special session of the 
general court, that vacancy shall in like 
manner be filled by choice from the people 
at large ; but if the vacancy shall occur at 
any other time, it shall be supplied by the 
governor by appointment, with the advice 
and consent of the council. The person 
so chosen or appointed, duly qualified in 
other respects, shall hold his office until 
his successor is chosen and duly qualified 
in his stead. If any person chosen or 
^ ..„ ... . appointed to any one of those offices shall 

Qualify within rf J 

ten days, or neglect, lor ten days arter he could other- 
office vacant. . i • -■ * ■ i ■ n 1 • 

wise enter upon his duties, to quality him- 
self in all respects to enter upon the discharge 
of such duties , the office to which he has been 
elected or appointed shall be deemed vacant. 



ORIGINAL CONSTITUTION. 81 

ner as might have been done by the legislature of the 
late Province of the Massachusetts Bay. 



CHAPTER V. 

Section II. 

The Encouragement of Literature, etc. 

Wisdom and knowledge, as well as virtue, diffused 
generally among the body of the people, being neces- 
sary for the preservation of their rights and liberties ; 
and as these depend on spreading the opportunities 
and advantages of education in the various parts of 
the country, and among the different orders of the 
people, it shall be the duty of legislatures and magis- 
trates, in all future periods of this commonwealth, to 
cherish the interests of literature and the sciences, and 
all seminaries of them ; especially the university at 
Cambridge, public schools and grammar schools in the 
towns ; to encourage private societies and public 
institutions, rewards and immunities, for the promotion 
of agriculture, arts, sciences, commerce, trades, man- 
ufactures, and a natural history of the country ; to 
countenance and inculcate the principles of humanity 
and general benevolence, public and private charity, 
industry and frugality, honesty and punctuality in their 
dealings; sincerity, good humor, and all social affec- 
tions, and generous sentiments, among the people. 



82 ADJUSTED CONSTITUTION. 

Cox. : Chap. II, Sec. IV, Art. I, II ; Chap. Ill, Art. I. 

No person shall be eligible to any of those 
offices unless he shall have been an inhabi- 
tant of this commonwealth five years next 
preceding his election or appointment. 

115. (1780.) That the citizens of this 
commonwealth may be assured from time 
to time that the moneys remaining in the 
public treasury, upon the settlement and 
liquidation of the public accounts, are their 

Treasurer property, no man shall be eligible as treas- 
five years.' urer more than five years successively. 

116. (1780.) The records of the corn- 
secretary to monwealth shall be kept in the office of the 

keep records : , i • i. i • i 

attend governor secretary, who may appoint his deputies, 
and council. for whoge conduct h e shall be accountable ; 

and he shall attend the governor and coun- 
cil, the senate and house of representatives, 
in person, or by his deputies, as they shall 
respectively require. 



JUDICIARY POWER. 

Tenureofaii H7» (1780.) The tenure, that all com- 

c re% S r S esse S d. 0mi ssion officers shall by law have in their 

offices, shall be expressed in their respective 

Judicial officers commissions. All judicial officers, duly 

hold during , . J , , i ii 

good behavior, appointed, commissioned, and sworn, snail 
hold their offices during good behavior, ex- 
cepting those for whom different provision 
has been made in this constitution ; but the 
governor, with consent of the council, may 
on address^ remove them upon the address of both 
houses of the legislature. 



ORIGINAL CONSTITUTION. 83 



CHAPTER VI. 

Oaths and Subscriptions ; Incompatibility of 
and Exclusion from Offices ; Pecuniary Quali- 
fications ; Commissions ; Writs ; Confirmation 
of Laws; Habeas Corpus ; the Enacting Style ; 
Continuance of Officers ; Provision for a 
Future Bevisal of the Constitution, etc. 

Article I. [Any person chosen governor, lieu- 
tenant-governor, councillor, senator, or representative, 
and accepting the trust, shall, before he proceed to 
execute the duties of his place or office, make and sub- 
scribe the following declaration, viz. : 

"I, A. B., do declare, that I believe the Christian 
religion, and have a firm persuasion of its truth ; and 
that I am seised and possessed, in my own right, of 
the property required by the constitution, as one 
qualification for the office or place to which I am 
elected." 

And the governor, lieutenant-governor, and coun- 
cillors, shall make and subscribe the said declaration, 
in the presence of the two houses of assembly ; and 
the senators and representatives, first elected under 
this constitution, before the president and five of the 
council of the former constitution ; and forever after- 
wards before the governor and council for the time 
being.] 

And every person chosen to either of the places or 
offices aforesaid, as also any person appointed or com- 



84 ADJUSTED CONSTITUTION. 



Con. : Ch. Ill, Ar. II, III, IY ; Ch. VI, Ar. II ; Ch. V, S. I, An. I. 

118. (1780.) Each branch of the legis- 
Supreme judges lature, as well as the governor and council, 

give opinions in/ t ° . i . . 

when required, shall have authority to require the opinions 
122 Mass. eoo. of the justices of the supreme judicial court, 
i26Mass.557,56i. U p 0n i m p 0r tant questions of law, and upon 
solemn occasions. 

119. (1780.) In order that the people 

J eace Ce te°nure e ma y not sun ° er fr° m tne l° n g continuance 
in place of any justice of the peace who shall 
3 Cush. 584. fail of discharging the important duties of 
his office with ability or fidelity, all com- 
missions of justices of the peace shall expire 
and become void, in the term of seven years 
from their respective dates ; and, upon the 
expiration of any commission, the same 
may, if necessary, be renewed, or another 
person appointed, as shall most conduce to 
the well being of the commonwealth. 

120. (1780.) The judges of probate of 
Provisions for wills, and for granting letters of adminis- 

DroD&te courts. 

' tration, shall hold their courts at such 

ray ' * places, on fixed days, as the convenience of 

the people shall require ; and the legislature 

shall, from time to time, hereafter appoint 

such times and places. 

121. (1780.) Every judge of the su- 
ny shfp. u ge "preme court may be a justice of the peace 

Par. 101. through the state ; but shall otherwise be 
under official restrictions like the governor's. 

HARVARD UNIVERSITY. 

Harvard 122. (1780.) Whereas our wise and 

university. pi ous ancestors, so early as the year one 



ORIGINAL CONSTITUTION- 85 

missioned to any judicial, executive, military, or other 
office under the government, shall, before he enters 
on the discharge of the business of his place or office, 
take and subscribe the following declaration, and oaths 
or affirmations, viz. : 

["I, A. B., do truly and sincerely acknowledge, 
profess, testify, and declare, that the Commonwealth 
of Massachusetts is, and of right ought to be, a free, 
sovereign, and independent state; and I do swear, 
that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the said 
commonwealth, and that I will defend the same against 
traitorous conspiracies and all hostile attempts what- 
soever ; and that I do renounce and abjure all alle- 
giance, subjection, and obedience to the king, queen, 
or government of Great Britain (as the case may be), 
and every other foreign power whatsoever ; and that 
no foreign prince, person, prelate, state, or potentate, 
hath, or ought to have, any jurisdiction, superiority, 
pre-eminence, authority, dispensing or other power, 
in any matter, civil, ecclesiastical, or spiritual, within 
this commonwealth, except the authority and power 
which is or may be vested by their constituents in the 
congress of the United States : and I do further testify 
and declare, that no man or body of men hath or can 
have any right to absolve or discharge me from the 
obligation of this oath, declaration, or affirmation; 
and that I do make this acknowledgment, profession, 
declaration, testimony, denial, renunciation, and ab- 
juration, heartily and truly, according to the common 
8 



86 



ADJUSTED CONSTITUTION 



Con. : Chap. Y. Sec, I, Art. I, II. 



thousand six hundred and thirty six, laid 
the foundation of Harvard college, in which 
university many persons of great eminence 
have, by the blessing of God, been initiated 
into those arts and sciences which qualified 
them for public employments, both in 
church and state ; and whereas the encour- 
agement of arts and sciences, and all good 
literature, tends to the honor of God, the 
advantage of the Christian religion, and the 
great benefit of this, and the other united 
states of America, it is declared that the 
president and fellows of Harvard college, 
in their corporate capacity, and their suc- 
cessors in that capacity, their officers and 
servants, shall have, hold, use, exercise and 
oifcers? enjoy, all the powers, authorities, rights, 
liberties, privileges, immunities and fran- 
chises, which they now have, or are entitled 
to have, hold, use, exercise and enjoy ; and 
the same are hereby ratified and confirmed 
unto them, the said president and fellows 
of Harvard college, and to their successors, 
and to their officers, and servants, respect- 
ively forever. 

123. (1780.) As at sundry times, by 
divers persons, gifts, grants, devises of 
houses, lands, tenements, goods, chattels, 
legacies and conveyances, have been here- 
tofore made, either to Harvard college in 
Cambridge, in New England, or to the 
president and fellows of Harvard college, 
ior to the said college, by some other de- 



ORIGINAL CONSTITUTION- 87 

meaning and acceptation of the foregoing words, with- 
out any equivocation, mental evasion, or secret reser- 
vation whatsoever. So help me, God."] 

" ? I, A. B., do solemnly swear and affirm, that I 
will faithfully and impartially discharge and perform 
all the duties incumbent on me as , ac- 

cording to the best of my abilities and understanding, 
agreeably to the rules and regulations of the consti- 
tution and the laws of the commonwealth. So help 
me, God." 

Provided, always, that when any person chosen or 
appointed as aforesaid, shall be of the denomination 
of the people called Quakers, and shall decline taking 
the said oath [si, he shall make his affirmation in the 
foregoing form, and subscribe the same, omitting the 
words, [" I do sicear" "and abjure" "oath or" 
" and abjuration" in the first oath ; and in the second 
oath, the words] "swear and" and [in each of them] 
the words " So help me, God ; " subjoining instead 
thereof, " This I do under the pains and penalties of 
perjury " 

And the said oaths or affirmations shall be taken 
and subscribed by the governor, lieutenant-governor, 
and councillors, before the president of the senate, in 
the presence of the two houses of assembly ; and by 
the senators and representatives first elected under this 
constitution, before the president and five of the coun- 
cil of the former constitution ; and forever afterwards 
before the governor and council for the time being; 



88 



ADJUSTED CONSTITUTION. 



Cox. : Chap. Y, Sec. I, Art. II, III. 



Property 
confirmed* 



Overseers, 
old board. 



scription, under several charters successive- 
ly ; all those gifts, grants, devises, legacies 
and conveyances, are hereby forever con- 
firmed unto the president and fellows of 
Harvard college, and to their successors in 
office, according to the true intent and 
meaning of the donors, grantors and de- 
visors. 

124. (1780.) By an act of the general 
court of the colony of Massachusetts Bay, 
passed in the year one thousand six hun- 
dred and forty two, the governor and dep- 
uty governor, for the time being, and all 
the magistrates of that jurisdiction, were, 
with the president, and a number of the 
clergy in that act described, constituted the 
.overseers of Harvard college ; and it beinsr 
necessary, in this new constitution of gov- 
ernment to ascertain who shall be deemed 
successors to the said governor, deputy 
governor, and magistrates ; it is declared,, 
that the governor, lieutenant governor, 
council, and senate of this commonwealth, 
are, and shall be deemed, their successors % 
who, with the president of Harvard college, 
for the time being, together with the minis- 
ters of the congregational churches in the 
towns of Cambridge, Watertown, Charles- 
town, Boston, Roxbury, and Dorchester, 
mentioned in the said act, shall be, and 
hereby are, rested with all the pow r ers and 
authority belonging, or in any way apper- 
taining to the overseers of Harvard college £ 



Who shall be 
overseers. 



See Statutes,. 
28.51, 224. 
1*52, 27. 

1859, 212. 
1865, 173. 

1860, 65. 



ORIGINAL CONSTITUTION. 81 

and by the residue of the officers aforesaid, before such 
persons and in such manner as from time to time shall 
be prescribed by the legislature. 

II. No governor, lieutenant-governor, or judge of 
the supreme judicial court, shall hold any other office 
or place, under the authority of this commonwealth, 
except such as by this constitution they are admitted 
to hold, saving that the judges of the said court may 
hold the offices of justices of the peace through the 
state ; nor shall they hold any other place or office, or 
receive any pension or salary from any other state or 
government or power whatever. 

No person shall be capable of holding or exercising 
at the same time, within this state, more than one of 
the following offices, viz. : judge of probate — sheriff 
— register of probate — or register of deeds ; and never 
more than any two offices, which are to be held by ap- 
pointment of the governor, or the governor and council, 
or the senate, or the house of representatives, or by 
the election of the people of the state at large, or of 
the people of any county, military offices, and the 
offices of justices of the peace excepted, shall be held 
by one person. 

Xo person holding the office of judge of the supreme 
judicial court — secretary — attorney-general — solicitor- 
general — treasurer or receiver-general — judge of pro- 
bate — commissary-general — [president, professor, or 
instructor of Harvard College]— sheriff — clerk of the 
house of representatives — register of probate — regis- 
8* 



90 ADJUSTED CONSTITUTION. 

Con. : Chap. Y, Sec. I, Art. Ill ; Sec. II. 

provided, that nothing herein shall be con- 
strued to prevent the legislature of this 
Legislature commonwealth from making such altera- 
naya er aw. ^ ong m ^ e g 0vernme nt of the said univer- 
sity, as shall be conducive to its advantage , 
and the interest of the republic of letters, 
in as full a manner as might have been done 
by the legislature of the late province of 
the Massachusetts Bay. 

LITERATURE, SCIENCE, SCHOOLS. 

125. (1780.) Wisdom and knowledge, 

as well as virtue, diffused generally among 

the people, being necessary for the 

preservation of their rights and liberties ; 

• and as these depend on spreading the op- 

^cirs for V aii P ortun ^ies and advantages of education in 

time. the various parts of the country, and among 

the different orders of the people, it shall 

12 Alien, 500 to be the duty of legislatures and magistrates, 

io3°Mass. 94 97. m a ^ future periods of this commonwealth, 

to cherish the interests of literature and the 

sciences, and all seminaries of them ; es- 

Codeofi8S2, pecially the university at Cambridge, pub- 

p. 3qo, sec. 15. jj c gcn00 } s an( j grammar schools in the 

towns ; to encourage private societies and 
public institutions, rewards and immunities, 
for the promotion of agriculture, arts, 
sciences, commerce, trades, manufactures, 
and a natural history of the country ; to 
countenance and inculcate the principles of 
humanity and general benevolence, public 
and private charity, industry and frugality, 



OPvIGINAL CONSTITUTION. 91 

ter of deeds — clerk of the supreme judicial court — 
clerk of the inferior court of common pleas — or officer 
of the customs, including in this description naval 
officers — shall at the same time have a seat in the 
senate or house of representatives ; but their being 
chosen or appointed to, and accepting the same, shall 
operate as a resignation of their seat in the senate or 
house of representatives ; and the place so vacated 
shall be filled up. 

And the same rule shall take place in case any judge 
of the said supreme judicial court, or judge of pro- 
bate, shall accept a seat in council ; or any councillor 
shall accept of either of those offices or places. 

And no person shall ever be admitted to hold a seat 
in the legislature, or any office of trust or importance 
under the government of this commonwealth, who 
shall, in the due course of law, have been convicted 
of bribery or corruption in obtaining an election or 
appointment. 

III. In all cases where sums of money are men- 
tioned in this constitution, the value thereof shall be 
computed in silver, at six shillings and eight pence 
per ounce ; and it shall be in the power of the legis- 
lature, from time to time, to increase such qualifications, 
as to property, of the persons to be elected to offices, 
as the circumstances of the commonwealth shall re- 
quire. 

IV. All commissions shall be in the name of the 
Commonwealth of Massachusetts, signed by the gov- 



92 ADJUSTED CONSTITUTION. 

Cox. ; Am. XVIII, VI ; Chap. VI, Art. I. 

honesty and punctuality in their dealings ; 
sincerity, good humor, and all social affec- 
tions, and generous sentiments among the 
people. 

126. (Am. 18, 1855.) All moneys 

S not°fir m sectY s ra ^ se( ^ by taxation in the towns and cities 
for the support of public schools, and 

12 Aiien,5oo,508. all moneys which may be appropriated by 

103 Mass., 93,96.^ g ^ ate f QJ . ^ Q SU pp 0r t of COllimOn Schools, 

shall be applied to and expended in no 
other schools than those which are con- 
ducted according to law, under the order 
and superintendence of the authorities of 
the town or city in which the money is to 
be expended ; and such moneys shall never 
be appropriated to any religious sect for 
the maintenance, exclusively, of its own 
school. 



OATHS, INCOMPATIBILITY OF OFFICES, PECUNIARY 
QUALIFICATIONS, COMMISSIONS, WRITS, CONFIRMA- 
TION OF LAWS, HAVE THE BODY, ENACTING STYLE, 
CONTINUANCE OF OFFICERS, REVISAL OF THE CON- 
STITUTION. 

127. (Am. 6 5 1821.) Every person 
chosen or appointed to any office, civil or 
military, under the government of this 
commonwealth, before he shall enter upon 
the duties of his office, shall take and sub- 
scribe the following oath r 

I, , do solemnly swear, that I 

will bear true faith and allegiance to the 






ORIGINAL CONSTITUTION. 93 

ernor and attested by the secretary or his deputy, and 
have the great seal of the commonwealth affixed 
thereto, 

V. All writs, issuing out of the clerk's office in any 
of the courts of law, shall be in the name of the Com- 
monwealth of Massachusetts ; they shall be under the 
seal of the court from whence they issue ; they shall 
bear test of the first justice of the court to which they 
shall be returnable, who is not a party, and be signed 
by the clerk of such court, 

VI. All the laws which have heretofore been 
adopted, used, and approved in the Province, Colony, 
or State of Massachusetts Bay, and usually practised 
on in the courts of law, shall still remain and be in 
full force, until altered or repealed by the legislature ; 
such parts only excepted as are repugnant to the rights 
and liberties contained in this constitution. 

VII. The privilege and benefit of the writ of 
habeas corpus shall be enjoyed in this commonwealth, 
in the most free, easy, cheap, expeditious, and ample 
manner ; and shall not be suspended by the legislature, 
except upon the most urgent and pressing occasions, 
and for a limited time, not exceeding twelve months. 

VIII. The enacting style, in making and passing 
all acts, statutes, and laws, shall be — " Be it enacted 
by the Senate and House of Representatives, in General 
Court assembled, and by the authority of the same." 

IX. To the end there may be no failure of justice, 
or danger arise to the commonwealth from a change of 



94 ADJUSTED CONSTITUTION* 



Cox. : Chap. YI, Art. I ; Am. TI, 

commonwealth of Massachusetts, and will 
support the constitution thereof. So help 
me, God. 

128. (1780.) Every officer shall also 
take and subscribe this oath of office : 

I, , do solemnly swear and af- 
firm, that I will faithfully and impartially 

Oath of office. ,. ' , r ,* a1 , . r . J 

discharge and perform all the duties incum- 
bent on me as , according to the 

best of my abilities and understanding, 
agreeably to the rules and regulations of 
the constitution and the laws of the com- 
monwealth. So help me, God. 

129. (Am. 6, 1821.) Friends, called 
aiiegSnce. Quakers, may affirm allegiance in these 

words : I, , do, under the penal- 
ties of perjury, solemnly affirm that I will 
bear true faith and allegiance to the com- 
monwealth of Massachusetts, and will sup- 
port the constitution thereof. They may 
also affirm for office : 

139. (1780.) I, , do, under 

the penalties of perjury, solemnly affirm 
Friends, office. thatIwm faithfullv an( j impartially per- 
form all the duties incumbent on me as 

, according to the best of my 

abilities and understanding, agreeably to 
the regulations of the constitution and the 
laws of the commonwealth. 

131. (1780.) Those oaths or affirma- 
oaths and t j 011 g sna U be taken and subscribed by the 

affirmations, , ' 

taken. governor, lieutenant governor, ana coun- 
cillors, before the president of the senate, 



ORIGINAL CONSTITUTION. 95 

the form of government, all officers, civil and military, 
holding commissions under the government and people 
of Massachusetts Bay in New England, and all other 
officers of the said government and people, at the 
time this constitution shall take effect, shall have, hold, 
use, exercise, and enjoy, all the powers and authority 
to them granted or committed, until other persons shall 
be appointed in their stead ; and all courts of law shall 
proceed in the execution of the business of their re- 
spective departments ; and all the executive and legis- 
lative officers, bodies, and powers shall continue in fall 
force, in the enjoyment and exercise of all their trusts, 
employments, and authority ; until the general court, 
and the supreme and executive officers under this con- 
stitution, are designated and invested with their re- 
spective trusts, powers, and authority. 

X. [In order the more effectually to adhere to the 
principles of the constitution, and to correct those 
violations which by any means may be made therein, 
as well as to form such alterations as from experience 
shall be found necessary, the general court which shall 
be in the year of our Lord one thousand seven hundred 
and ninety-five, shall issue precepts to the selectmen 
of the several towns, and to the assessors of the unin- 
corporated plantations, directing them to convene the 
qualified voters of their respective towns and planta- 
tions, for the purpose of collecting their sentiments on 
the necessity or expediency of revising the constitution, 
in order to amendments. 



96 ADJUSTED CONSTITUTION. 

Con. ; Am. VII ; Chap. VI, Art. II. 

in the presence of the two houses of the 
legislature ; and, by the senators and rep- 
resentatives first elected under this consti- 
tution, before the president and five of the 
council of the former constitution ; and 
forever afterwards before the governor and 
council for the time being ; and by the 
residue of the officers aforesaid, before such 
persons and in such manner as from time 
to time shall be prescribed by the legis- 
lature. 

132. (Am. 7, 1821.) No oath, decla- 
Tests abolished, ration, nor subscription, excepting the oath 

of allegiance, and the oath of office, shall 
be required of the governor, lieutenant 
governor, councillors, senators, nor repre- 
sentatives, to qualify them to perform the 
duties of their respective offices. 

133. (1780.) The judges of the su- 
Limit of offices preme court may be justices of the peace 

and others. 1 " through the state : the governor, for the 
Par. 82. time being, shall be the commander in chief 
of all the state's military and naval forces : 
otherwise, the governor shall hold no office 
nor place under the authority of this com- 
monwealth but his governorship, the lieu- 
tenant governor none but his constitutional 
lieutenant governorship, the supreme judges 
none but their judgeships ; nor shall any of 
those officers hold any place nor office, nor 
receive any pension nor salary from any 
other state nor government nor power what- 
ever. 



ORIGINAL CONSTITUTION. 97 

And if it shall appear, by the returns made, that 
two-thirds of the qualified voters throughout the state, 
who shall assemble and vote in consequence of the said 
precepts, are in favor of such revision or amendment, 
the general court shall issue precepts, or direct them 
to be issued from the secretary's office, to the several 
towns to elect delegates to meet in convention for the 
purpose aforesaid. 

The said delegates to be chosen in the same manner 
and proportion as their representatives in the second 
branch of the legistature are by this constitution to be 
chosen.] 

XI. This form of government shall be enrolled on 
parchment, and deposited in the secretary's office, and 
be a part of the laws of the land ; and printed copies 
thereof shall be prefixed to the book containing the 
laws of this commonwealth, in all future editions of 
the said laws. 



ARTICLES OF AMENDMENT. 

Article I. If any bill or resolve shall be objected 
to, and not approved by the governor ; and if the gen- 
eral court shall adjourn within five days after the same 
shall have been laid before the governor for his appro- 
bation, and thereby prevent his returning it with his 
objections, as provided by the constitution, such bill 
or resolve shall not become a law, nor have force as 
such. 

9 



98 ADJUSTED CONSTITUTION. 



Con. : Am. YIII ; Chap, VI, Art. II. 

134, (Am. 8,1821; 1780.) A post- 
master or a judge of the court of the ses- 
sions may, with his office, hold a seat if 
elected to it, in the council, senate or 
house of representatives ; and a sessions 
judge may so sit in either house of 
incompatibility the United States congress: otherwise, no 

of OffiCGS. 

judge of any court of this state, and no 
i22Mass.445,6oo. United States officer, while in office, shall 
123 Mass. 535. ^ e governor, lieutenant governor, nor coun- 
cillor ; nor shall any judge of a state court, 
nor the secretary, attorney general, solicitor 
general, treasurer, commissary general, 
C1 no k t n f amed. te clerk of the house of representatives, clerk 
of the supreme court, clerk of the court of 
common pleas, sheriff, register of probate, 
register of deeds, officer of the customs, 
nor officer of the navy, nor any United 
States officer, while in office, have a seat 
in the senate of this state, nor in its house 
of representatives ; nor again shall any 
state judge, nor the attorney general, solic- 
itor general, treasurer, nor a county attor- 
ney, clerk of any court, sheriff, register of 
probate, nor register of deeds, continue to 
hold his office after accepting a membership 
in the congress of the United States ; but 
whenever any one of those officers accepts 
an incompatible office, his acceptance shall 
work his immediate resignation of his 
former office ; and any seat so vacated in 
the senate or in the house, shall be filled 
anew. 



ORIGINAL CONSTITUTION. 99 

Art. II. The general court shall have full power 
and authority to erect and constitute municipal or city 
governments, in any corporate town or towns in this 
commonwealth, and to grant to the inhabitants thereof 
such powers, privileges, and immunities, not repug- 
nant to the constitution, as the general court shall 
deem necessary or expedient for the regulation and 
government thereof, and to prescribe the manner of 
calling and holding public meetings of the inhabitants, 
in wards or otherwise, for the election of officers under 
the constitution, and the manner of returning the votes 
given at such meetings. Provided, that no such gov- 
ernment shall be erected or constituted in any town 
not containing twelve thousand inhabitants, nor unless 
it be with the consent, and on the application of a 
majority of the inhabitants of such town, present and 
voting thereon, pursuant to a vote at a meeting duly 
warned and holden for that purpose. And provided, 
also, that all by-laws, made by such municipal or city 
government, shall be subject, at all times, to be an- 
nulled by the general court. 

Art. III. Every male citizen of twenty-one years 
of age and upwards, excepting paupers and persons 
under guardianship, who shall have resided within the 
commonwealth one year, and within the town or dis- 
trict in which he may claim a right to vote, six calen- 
dar months next preceding any election of governor, 
lieutenant-governor, senators, or representatives, and 
who shall have paid, by himself, or his parent, master. 



100 



ADJUSTED CONSTITUTION. 



Cox. : Chap. VI, Art. II ; Am. VIII ; Cha.p. VI, Art. II, in. 



Same. 



judge. 



Incompati- 
bility. 

1 Allen, 553. 



135. (1780.) The same rule shall take 
place if any judge of the supreme judicial 
court, or judge of probate, shall accept a 
seat in council ; or any councillor shall 
accept either of those judgeships. 

136. (Am. 8, 1821.) Any judge of the 
Common pleas court of common pleas may hold militia 

offices and be a justice of the peace : other- 
wise his judgeship shall be the only state 
office allowed him. 

137. (1780.) No person shall be capa- 
ble at the same time, within this state, of 
being or of exercising the functions of more 
than one of the following officers : judge 
of probate, sheriff, register of probate, 
register of deeds ; nor ever more than any 
two offices, which are to be held by appoint- 
ment of the governor, or of the governor 
and council, or of the senate, or of the 
house of representatives, or by the election 
of the people of the state at large, or of 
the people of any county, except military 
offices, and a justiceship of the peace. 

138. (1780.) No person shall ever be 
admitted to hold a seat in the legislature, 
nor any office of trust nor of importance 
under the government of this common- 
wealth, who shall, in the due course of 
law, have been convicted of bribery or 
corruption in obtaining an election or ap- 
pointment. 

139. (1780.) In all cases, where sums 
ValU fixed? 0Iiey of money are mentioned in this constitution, 



Bribery or 
corruption 
disqualifies. 



ORIGINAL CONSTITUTION. 101 

or guardian, any state or county tax, which shall, within 
two years next preceding such election, have been as- 
sessed upon him, in any town or district of this com- 
monwealth ; and also every citizen who shall be, by 
law, exempted from taxation, and who shall be, in all 
other respects, qualified as above mentioned, shall have 
a. right to vote in such election of governor, lieutenant- 
governor, senators, and representatives ; and no other 
persons shall be entitled to vote in such elections. 

Art. IV. Notaries public shall be appointed by 
the governor in the same manner as judicial officers 
are appointed, and shall hold their offices during seven 
years, unless sooner removed by the governor, with 
the consent of the council, upon the address of both 
houses of the legislature. 

[In case the office of secretary or treasurer of the 
commonwealth shall become vacant from any cause, 
during the recess of the general court, the governor, 
with the advice and consent of the council, shall nomi- 
nate and appoint, under such regulations as may be 
prescribed by law, a competent and suitable person to 
such vacant office, who shall hold the same until a 
successor shall be appointed by the general court.] 

Whenever the exigencies of the commonwealth shall 
require the appointment of a commissary-general, he 
shall be nominated, appointed, and commissioned, in 
such manner as the legislature may, by law, prescribe. 

All officers commissioned to command in the militia 

may be removed from office in such manner as the 

legislature may, by law, prescribe. 
9* 



102 ADJUSTED CONSTITUTION. 



Cox. : Chap. VI, Art. Ill, IV, V, VI, VII. 

the value thereof shall be computed in sil- 
ver, at six shillings and eight pence a Troy 
Property quaii- ounce ; and it shall be in the power of the 

fications may i • i , r , • j.' j 

be increased, legislature, from time to time, to increase 
such qualifications, as to property, of the 
persons to be elected to offices, as the cir- 
cumstances of the commonwealth shall re- 
quire. 

140. (1780.) All commissions shall be 
a . in the name of the commonwealth of Massa- 

Commissions , ; , * ' , , 

signed by gover-cnusetts, signed by the governor and at- 
tested by the secretary or his deputy, and 
have the great seal of the commonwealth 
affixed thereto. 

141. (1780.) All writs, issuing out of 
Writs. the clerk's office in any of the courts of 

2 Pick. 592. law, shall be in the name of the common- 
i3G e ray 8 74. wealth of Massachusetts : they shall be un- 
der the seal of the court from which they 
issue : they shall be certified by the first 
justice of the court to which they shall be 
returnable, who is not a party ; and be 
signed by the clerk of that court. 

142. (1780.) All the laws which have 
Former laws, heretofore been adopted, used, and ap- 
proved in the province, colony, or state of 

2 Mass*. 534. Massachusetts Bay, and usually practised 

I6p\ck\i07,ii5'. on m tne courts of law, shall still remain 

2 Met. 118. anc j b e j n f u \\ force, until altered or repealed 

by the legislature ; such parts only excepted 

as are repugnant to the rights and liberties 

contained in this constitution. 

143. (1780.) The privilege and benefit 



ORIGINAL CONSTITUTION. 103 

Art. V. In the elections of captains and subal- 
terns of the militia, all the members of their respective 
companies, as well those under as those above the age 
of twenty-one years, shall have a right to vote. 

Art. VI. Instead of the oath of allegiance pre- 
scribed by the constitution, the following oath shall be 
taken and subscribed by every person chosen or ap- 
pointed to any office, civil or military, under the gov- 
ernment of this commonwealth, before he shall enter 
on the duties of his office, to wit : — 

"I, A. B. do solemnly swear, that I will bear true 
faith and allegiance to the Commonwealth of Massa- 
chusetts, and will support the constitution thereof. So 
help me, God." 

Provided, That when any person shall be of the 
denomination called Quakers, and shall decline taking 
said oath, he shall make his affirmation in the foregoing 
form, omitting the word "swear" and inserting, in- 
stead thereof, the word "affirm," and omitting the 
words "So help me, God," and subjoining, instead 
thereof, the words, "This I do under the pains and 
penalties of perjury." 

Art. VII. No oath, declaration, or subscription, 
excepting the oath prescribed in the preceding article, 
and the oath of office, shall be required of the governor, 
lieutenant-governor, councillors, senators, or repre- 
sentatives, to qualify them to perform the duties of 
their respective offices. 

Art. VIII. No judge of any court of this com- 



104 ADJUSTED CONSTITUTION. 

Con. : Chap. VI, Art. VII, Yin ; Am. IX. ~ 

Writ to bring of the writ of have the body, shall be en- 
fore theju^^^^ ^ n this commonwealth, in the most 
free, easy, cheap, expeditious, and ample 
manner ; and shall not be suspended by the 
legislature, except upon the most urgent 
and pressing occasions, and for a limited 
time, not exceeding twelve months. 

144, (1780.) The enacting style, in 
Enacting style. ma king and passing all acts, statutes, and 

laws, shall be, be it enacted by the senate 
and house of representatives, in general 
court assembled, and by the authority of 
the same. 

145. (Am. 9, 1821.) If at any time 
Ame th. d d e f*' nerea f ter an y specific and particular amend- 
ment to the constitution be proposed in the 
general court, and agreed to by a majority 
of the senators and two thirds of the mem- 
bers of the house of representatives present 
and voting thereon, such proposed amend- 
ment shall be entered on the journals of the 
two houses, with the yeas and nays taken 
thereon, and referred to the general court 
then next to be chosen, and shall be pub- 
lished ; and if, in the general court next 
chosen, such proposed amendment shall be 
agreed to by a majority of the senators and 
two thirds of the members of the house of 
representatives present and voting thereon, 
then the general court shall submit that 
proposed amendment to the people; and if 
it shall be approved and ratified by a major- 
ity of the qualified voters, voting thereon, 



ORIGINAL CONSTITUTION, 105 

mon wealth, (except the court of sessions,) and no 
person holding any office under the authority of the 
United States, (postmasters excepted,) shall, at the 
same time, hold the office of governor, lieutenant- 
governor, or councillor, or have a seat in the senate or 
house of representatives of this commonwealth ; and 
no judge of any court in this commonwealth, (except 
the court of sessions,) nor the attorney-general, solic- 
itor-general, county attorney, clerk of any court, 
sheriff, treasurer, and receiver-general, register of 
probate, nor register of deeds, shall continue to hold 
his said office after being elected a member of the Con- 
gress of the United States, and accepting that trust; 
but the acceptance of such trust, by any of the officers 
aforesaid, shall be deemed and taken to be a resigna- 
tion of his said office ; and judges of the courts of 
common pleas shall hold no other office under the 
government of this commonwealth, the office of justice 
of the peace and militia offices excepted. 

Art. IX. If, at any time hereafter, any specific 
and particular amendment or amendments to the con- 
stitution be proposed in the general court, and agreed 
to by a majority of the senators and two-thirds of the 
members of the house of representatives present and 
voting thereon, such proposed amendment or amend- 
ments shall be entered on the journals of the two 
houses, with the yeas and nays taken thereon, and re- 
ferred to the general court then next to be chosen, and 
shall be published ; and if, in the general court next 



106 ADJUSTED CONSTITUTION. 

Cox. : Am. IX ; Chap. VI, Art. XI. 

at meetings legally warned and held for 
that purpose, it shall become a part of the 
constitution of this commonwealth. 

146. (1780.) This form of government 
shall be enrolled on parchment, and de- 
Preserving and posited in the secretary's office, and be a 
P consuiufion! s P»rt of the laws of the land ; and printed 
copies thereof shall be prefixed to the book 
containing the laws of this commonwealth, 
in all future editions of those laws. 



END OF ADJUSTED CONSTITUTION. 



ORIGINAL CONSTITUTION. 107 

chosen as aforesaid, such proposed amendment or 
amendments shall be agreed to by a majority of the 
senators and two-thirds of the members of the house 
of representatives present and voting thereon, then it 
shall be the duty of the general court to submit such 
proposed amendment or amendments to the people ; 
and if they shall be approved and ratified by a majority 
of the qualified voters, voting thereon, at meetings 
legally warned and holden for that purpose, they shall 
become part of the constitution of this commonwealth. 

Art. X. The political year shall begin on the first 
Wednesday of January, instead of the last Wednesday 
of May ; and the general court shall assemble every 
year on the said first Wednesday of January, and shall 
proceed, at that session, to make all the elections, and 
do all the other acts, which are by the constitution re- 
quired to be made and done at the session which has 
heretofore commenced on the last Wednesday of May. 
And the general court shall be dissolved on the day 
next preceding the first Wednesday of January, with- 
out any proclamation or other act of the governor. 
But nothing herein contained shall prevent the general 
court from assembling at such other times as they shall 
judge necessary, or when called together by the gover- 
nor. The governor, lieutenant-governor and coun- 
cillors, shall also hold their respective offices for one 
year next following the first Wednesday of January, 
and until others are chosen and qualified in their stead. 

[The meeting for the choice of governor, lieutenant- 



108 ORIGINAL CONSTITUTION. 

governor, senators, and representatives, shall be held 
on the second Monday of November in every year ; but 
meetings may be adjourned, if necessary, for the choice 
of representatives, to the next day, and again to the 
next succeeding day, but no further. But in case a 
second meeting shall be necessary for the choice of 
representatives, such meetings shall be held on the 
fourth Monday of the same month of November.] 

All the other provisions of the constitution, re- 
specting the elections and proceedings of the members 
of the general court, or of any other officers or per- 
sons whatever, that have reference to the last Wednes- 
day of May, as thq, commencement of the political 
year, shall be so far altered, as to have like reference 
to the first Wednesday of January. 

This article shall go into operation on the first day 
of October, next following the day when the same shall 
be duly ratified and adopted as an amendment of the 
constitution; and the governor, lieutenant-governor, 
councillors, senators, representatives, and all other 
state officers, who are annually chosen, and who shall 
be chosen for the current year, when the same shall go 
into operation, shall hold their respective offices until 
the first Wednesday of January then next following, 
and until others are chosen and qualified in their stead, 
and no longer ; and the first election of the governor, 
lieutenant-governor, senators, and representatives, to 
be had in virtue of this article, shall be had con- 
formably thereunto, in the month of November follow- 



ORIGINAL CONSTITUTION. 109 

ing the day on which the same shall be in force, and 
go into operation, pursuant to the foregoing provision . 

All the provisions of the existing constitution, in- 
consistent with the provisions herein contained, are 
hereby wholly annulled. 

Art. XI. Instead of the third article of the bill 
of rights, the following modification and amendment 
thereof is substituted : — 

"As the public worship of God and instructions in 
piety, religion, and morality, promote the happiness 
and prosperity of a people, and the security of a repub- 
lican government ; therefore, the several religious 
societies of this commonwealth, whether corporate or 
unincorporate, at any meeting legally warned and 
holden for that purpose, shall ever have the right to 
elect their pastors or religious teachers, to contract 
with them for their support, to raise money for erecting 
and repairing houses for public worship, for the main- 
tenance of religious instruction, and for the payment 
of necessary expenses ; and all persons belonging to 
any religious society shall be taken and held to be mem- 
bers, until they shall file with the clerk of such society 
a written notice, declaring the dissolution of their 
membership, and thenceforth shall not be liable for any 
grant or contract which may be thereafter made, or 
entered into by such society ; and all religious sects 
and denominations, demeaning themselves peaceably, 
and as good citizens of the commonwealth, shall be 
equally under the protection of the law ; and no subor- 
10 



110 ORIGINAL CONSTITUTION. 

dination of any one sect or denomination to another 
shall ever be established by law." 

Art. XII. [In order to provide for a representation 
of the citizens of this commonwealth, founded upon 
the principles of equality, a census of the ratable polls, 
in each city, town, and district of the commonwealth, 
on the first day of May, shall be taken and returned 
into the secretary's office, in such manner as the legis- 
lature shall provide, within the month of May, in the 
year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and 
thirty-seven, and in every tenth year thereafter, in the 
month of May, in manner aforesaid ; and each town 
or city having three hundred ratable polls at the last 
preceding decennial census of polls, may elect one 
representative, and for every four hundred and fifty 
ratable polls in addition to the first three hundred, one 
representative more. 

Any town having less than three hundred ratable 
polls shall be represented thus : The whole number of 
ratable polls, at the last preceding decennial census of 
polls, shall be mutiplied by ten, and the product divided 
by three hundred ; and such town may elect one repre- 
sentative as many years within ten years, as three 
hundred is contained in the product aforesaid. 

Any city or town having ratable polls enough to 
elect one or more representatives, with any number of 
polls beyond the necessary number, may be represented, 
as to that surplus number, by multiplying such sur- 
plus number by ten and dividing the product by four 



ORIGINAL CONSTITUTION, 111 

hundred and fifty ; and such city or town may elect 
one additional representative as many years, within the 
ten years, as four hundred and fifty is contained in the 
product aforesaid. 

Any two or more of the several towns and districts 
may, by consent of a majority of the legal voters 
present at a legal meeting, in each of said towns and 
districts, respectively, called for that purpose, and held 
previous to the first day of July, in the year in which 
the decennial census of polls shall be taken, form them- 
selves into a representative district to continue until 
the next decennial census of polls, for the election of 
a representative, or representatives ; and such district 
shall have all the rights, in regard to representation, 
which would belong to a town containing the same 
number of ratable polls. 

The governor and council shall ascertain and de- 
termine, within the months of July and August, in the 
year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and 
thirty-seven, according to the foregoing principles, 
the number of representatives, which each city, town, 
and representative district is entitled to elect, and the 
number of years, within the period of ten years then 
next ensuing, that each city, town, and representative 
district may elect an additional representative ; and 
where any town has not a sufficient number of polls to 
elect a representative each year, then, how many years 
within the ten years, such town may elect a repre- 
sentative ; and the same shall be done once in ten 



112 ORIGINAL CONSTITUTION. 

years, thereafter, by the governor and council, and the 
number of ratable polls in each decennial census of 
polls, shall determine the number of representatives, 
which each city, town and representative district may 
elect as aforesaid ; and when the number of repre- 
sentatives to be elected by each city, town, or repre- 
sentative district is ascertained and determined as afore- 
said, the governor shall cause the same to be published 
forthwith for the information of the people, and that 
number shall remain fixed and unalterable for the period 
of ten years. 

All the provisions of the existing constitution incon- 
sistent with the provisions herein contained, are hereby 
wholly annulled.] 

Art. XIII. [A census of the inhabitants of each 
city and town, on the first day of May, shall be taken, 
and returned into the secretary's office, on or before 
the last day of June, of the year one thousand eight 
hundred and forty, and of every tenth year thereafter ; 
which census shall determine the apportionment of 
senators and representatives for the term of ten years. 

The several senatorial districts now existing shall be 
permanent. The senate shall consist of forty mem- 
bers ; and in the year one thousand eight hundred and 
forty, and every tenth year thereafter, the governor 
and council shall assign the number of senators to be 
chosen in each district, according to the number of 
inhabitants in the same. But, in all cases, at least 
one senator shall be assigned to each district. 



ORIGINAL CONSTITUTION, 113 

The members of the house of representatives shall 
be apportioned in the following manner : Every town 
or city containing twelve hundred inhabitants may elect 
one representative ; and two thousand four hundred in- 
habitants shall be the mean increasing number, which 
shall entitle it to an additional representative. 

Every town containing less than twelve hundred in- 
habitants shall be entitled to elect a representative as 
many times within ten years as the number one hun- 
dred and sixty is contained in the number of the inhab- 
itants of said town. Such towns may also elect one 
representative for the year in which the valuation of 
estates within the commonwealth shall be settled. 

Any two or more of the several towns may, by con- 
sent of a majority of the legal voters present at a legal 
meeting, in each of said towns, respectively, called for 
that purpose, and held before the first day of August, 
in the year one thousand eight hundred and forty, and 
every tenth year thereafter, form themselves into a 
representative district, to continue for the term of ten 
years ; and such district shall have all the rights, in 
regard to representation, which would belong to a town 
containing the same number of inhabitants. 

The number of inhabitants which shall entitle a 
town to elect one representative, and the mean in- 
creasing number which shall entitle a town or city to 
elect more than one, and also the number by which the 
population of towns not entitled to a representative 
every year is to be divided, shall be increased, respec- 
10* 



Ill OKIGINAL CONSTITUTION. 

tively, by one-tenth of the numbers above mentioned, 
whenever the population of the commonwealth shall 
have increased to seven hundred and seventy thousand, 
and for every additional increase of seventy thousand 
inhabitants, the same addition of one-tenth shall be 
made, respectively, to the said numbers above men- 
tioned. 

In the year of each decennial census, the governor 
and council shall, before the first day of September, 
apportion the number of representatives which each 
city, town, and representative district is entitled to 
elect, and ascertain how many years, within ten years, 
any town may elect a representative, which is not en- 
titled to elect one every year ; and the governor shall 
cause the same to be published forthwith. 

Nine councillors shall be annually chosen from among 
the people at large, on the first Wednesday of January, 
or as soon thereafter as may be, by the joint ballot of 
the senators and representatives, assembled in one 
room, who shall, as soon as may be, in like manner, 
iill up any vacancies that may happen in the council, 
by death, resignation, or otherwise. No person shall 
be elected a councillor, who has not been an inhabitant 
of this commonwealth for the term of five years im- 
mediately preceding his election ; and not more than 
one councillor shall be chosen from any one senatorial 
district in the commonwealth.] 

No possession of a freehold, or of any other estate, 
shall be required as a qualification for holding a seat 



ORIGINAL CONSTITUTION. 115 

in* either branch of the general court, or in the execu- 
tive council. 

Art. XI V. In all elections of civil officers by the 
people of this commonwealth, whose election is pro- 
vided for by the constitution, the person having the 
highest number of votes shall be deemed and declared 
to be elected. 

Art. XV. The meeting for the choice of governor, 
lieutenant-governor, senators, and representatives, 
shall be held on the Tuesday next after the first Mon- 
day in November, annually ; but in case of a failure 
to elect representatives on that day, a second meeting 
shall be holden, for that purpose, on the fourth Mon- 
day of the same month of November. 

Art. XVI. Eight councillors shall be annually 
chosen by the inhabitants of this commonwealth, 
qualified to vote for governor. The election of coun- 
cillors shall be determined by the same rule that is re- 
quired in the election of governor. The legislature, 
at its first session after this amendment shall have been 
adopted, and at its first session after the next state 
census shall have been taken, and at its first session after 
each decennial state census thereafterwards, shall divide 
the commonwealth into eight districts of contiguous 
territory, each containing a number of inhabitants as 
nearly equal as practicable, without dividing any town 
or ward of a city, and each entitled to elect one coun- 
cillor : provided^ however, that if, at any time, the 
constitution shall provide for the division of the com- 



116 ORIGINAL CONSTITUTION. 

mon wealth into forty senatorial districts, then the leg- 
islature shall so arrange the councillor districts, that 
each district shall consist of five contiguous senatorial 
districts, as they shall be, from time to time, estab- 
lished by the legislature. No person shall be eligible 
to the office of councillor who has not been an inhab- 
itant of the commonwealth for the term of five years 
immediately preceding his election. The day and 
manner of the election, the return of the votes, and 
the declaration of the said elections, shall be the same 
as are required in the election of governor. [When- 
ever there shall be a failure to elect the full number of 
councillors, the vacancies shall be filled in the same 
manner as is required for filling vacancies in the senate ; 
and vacancies occasioned by death, removal from the 
state, or otherwise, shall be filled in like manner, as 
soon as may be, after such vacancies shall have hap- 
pened.] And that there may be no delay in the or- 
ganization of the government on the first Wednesday 
of January, the governor, with at least five councillors 
for the time being, shall, as soon as may be, examine 
the returned copies of the records for the election of 
governor, lieutenant-governor, and councillors ; and 
ten days before the said first Wednesday in January 
he shall issue his summons to such persons as appear 
to be chosen, to attend on that day to be qualified ac- 
cordingly ; and the secretary shall lay the returns be- 
fore the senate and house of representatives on the 
said first Wednesday in January, to be by them ex- 



ORIGINAL CONSTITUTION. 117 

amined ; and in case of the election of either of said 
officers, the choice shall be by them declared and pub- 
lished ; but in case there shall be no election of either 
of said officers, the legislature shall proceed to fill such 
vacancies in the manner provided in the constitution 
for the choice of such officers, 

Art, XVII. The secretary, treasurer and receiver- 
general, auditor, and attorney-general, shall be chosen 
annually, on the day in November prescribed for the 
choice of governor ; and each person then chosen as 
such, duly qualified in other respects, shall hold his 
office for the term of one year from the third Wed- 
nesday in January next thereafter, and until another 
is chosen and qualified in his stead. The qualification 
of the voters, the manner of the election, the return 
of the votes, and the declaration of the election, shall 
be such as are required in the election of governor. 
In case of a failure to elect either of said officers on 
the day in November aforesaid, or in case of the de- 
cease, in the mean time, of the person elected as such, 
such officer shall be chosen on or before the third Wed- 
nesday in January next thereafter, from the two per- 
sons who had the highest number of votes for said 
offices on the day in November aforesaid, by joint bal- 
lot of the senators and representatives, in one room ; 
and in case the office of secretary, or treasurer and 
receiver-general, or auditor, or attorney-general, shall 
become vacant, from any cause, during an annual or 
special session of the general court, such vacancy shall 



118 ORIGINAL CONSTITUTION. 

in like manner be filled by choice from the people at 
large ; but if such vacancy shall occur at any other 
time, it shall be supplied by the governor by appoint- 
ment, with the advice and consent of the council. 
The person so chosen or appointed, duly qualified in 
other respects, shall hold his office until his successor 
is chosen and duly qualified in his stead. In case any 
person chosen or appointed to either of the offices 
aforesaid, shall neglect, for the space often days after 
he could otherwise enter upon his duties, to qualify 
himself in all respects to enter upon the discharge 
of such duties, the office to which he has been elected 
or appointed shall be deemed vacant. No person shall 
be eligible to either of said offices unless he shall have 
been an inhabitant of this commonwealth five years 
next preceding his election or appointment. 

Art. XVIII. All moneys raised by taxation in the 
towns and cities for the support of public schools, and 
all moneys which may be appropriated by the state for 
the support of common schools, shall be applied to, 
and expended in, no other schools than those which are 
conducted according to law, under the order and super- 
intendence of the authorities of the town or city in 
which the money is to be expended ; and such moneys 
shall never be appropriated to any religious sect for 
the maintenance, exclusively, of its own school. 

Art. XIX. The legislature shall prescribe, by 
general law, for the election of sheriffs, registers of 
probate, commissioners of insolvency, and clerks of 



ORIGINAL CONSTITUTION. 119 

the courts, by the people of the several counties, and 
that district-attorneys shall be chosen by the people of 
the several districts, for such term of office as the leg- 
islature shall prescribe. 

Art. XX. No person shall have the right to vote, 
or be eligible to office under the constitution of this 
commonwealth, who shall not be able to read the con- 
stitution in the English language, and write his name : 
provided, however, that the provisions of this amend- 
ment shall not apply to any person prevented by a 
physical disability from complying with its requisitions, 
nor to any person who now has the right to vote, nor 
to any persons who shall be sixty years of age or up- 
wards at the time this amendment shall take effect. 

Art. XXI. A census of the legal voters of each 
city and town, on the first day of May, shall be taken 
and returned into the office of the secretary of the 
commonwealth, on or before the last day of June, in 
the year one thousand eight hundred and fifty-seven ; 
and a census of the inhabitants of each city and town, 
in the year one thousand eight hundred and sixty-five, 
and of every tenth year thereafter. In the census 
aforesaid, a special enumeration shall be made of the 
legal voters ; and in each city, said enumeration shall 
specify the number of such legal voters aforesaid, re- 
siding in each ward of such city. The enumeration 
aforesaid shall determine the apportionment of repre- 
sentatives for the periods between the taking of the 
census. 



120 ORIGINAL CONSTITUTION. 

The house of representatives shall consist of two 
hundred and forty members, which shall be apportioned 
by the legislature, at its first session after the return of 
each enumeration as aforesaid, to the several counties 
of the commonwealth, equally, as nearly as may be, 
according to their relative numbers of legal voters, as 
ascertained by the next preceding special enumeration ; 
and the town of Cohasset, in the county of Norfolk, 
shall, for this purpose, as well as in the formation of 
districts, as hereinafter provided, be considered a part 
of the county of Plymouth ; and it shall be the duty 
of the secretary of this commonwealth, to certify, as 
soon as may be after it is determined by the legislature, 
the number of representatives to which each county 
shall be entitled, to the board authorized to divide each 
county into representative districts. The mayor and 
aldermen of the city of Boston, the county commis- 
sioners of other counties than Suffolk, — or in lieu of 
the mayor and aldermen of the city of Boston, or of the 
county commissioners in each county other than Suffolk, 
such board of special commissioners in each county, 
to be elected by the people of the county, or of the 
towns therein, as may for that purpose be provided by 
law, — shall, on the first Tuesday of August next after 
each assignment of representatives to each county, as- 
semble at a shire town of their respective counties, and 
proceed, as soon as may be, to divide the same into 
representative districts of contiguous territory, so as 
to apportion the representation assigned to each county 



ORIGINAL CONSTITUTION. 121 

equally, as nearly as may be, according to the relative 
number of legal voters in the several districts of each 
county ; and such districts shall be so formed that no 
town or ward of a city shall be divided therefor, nor 
shall any district be made which shall be entitled to 
elect more than three representatives. Every repre- 
sentative, for one year at least next preceding his 
election, shall have been an inhabitant of the district 
for which he is chosen, and shall cease to represent 
such district when he shall cease to be an inhabitant of 
the commonwealth. The districts in each county shall 
be numbered by the board creating the same, and a 
description of each, with the numbers thereof and the 
number of legal voters therein, shall be returned by 
the board, to the secretary of the commonwealth, the 
county treasurer of each county, and to the clerk of 
every town in each district, to be filed and kept in their 
respective offices. The manner of calling and con- 
ducting the meetings for the choice of representatives, 
and of ascertaining their election, shall be prescribed 
by law. Not less than one hundred members of the 
house of representatives shall constitute a quorum for 
doing business ; but a less number may organize tem- 
porarily, adjourn from day to day, and compel the at- 
tendance of absent members. 

Art. XXII. A census of the legal voters of each 
city and town, on the first day of May, shall be taken 
and returned into the office of the secretary of the com- 
monwealth, on or before the last day of June, in the 
11 



122 ORIGINAL CONSTITUTION. 

year one thousand eight hundred and fifty-seven ; and a 
census of the inhabitants of each city and town, in the 
year one thousand eight hundred and sixty-five, and of 
every tenth year thereafter. In the census aforesaid, 
a special enumeration shall be made of the legal 
voters, and in each city said enumeration shall specify 
the number of such legal voters aforesaid, residing in 
each ward of such city. The enumeration aforesaid 
shall determine the apportionment of senators for the 
periods between the taking of the census. The senate 
shall consist of forty members. The general court 
shall, at its first session after each next preceding spe- 
cial enumeration, divide the commonwealth into forty 
districts of adjacent territory, each district to contain, 
as nearly as may be, an equal number of legal voters, 
according to the enumeration aforesaid : provided, 
hoivever, that no town or ward of a city shall be di- 
vided therefor ; and such districts shall be formed, as 
nearly as may be, without uniting two counties, or 
parts of two or more counties, into one district. Each 
district shall elect one senator, who shall have been an 
inhabitant of this commonwealth five years at least 
immediately preceding his election, and at the time of 
his election shall be an inhabitant of the district for 
which he is chosen ; and he shall cease to represent 
such senatorial district when he shall cease to be an 
inhabitant of the commonwealth. Not less than six- 
teen senators shall constitute a quorum for doing busi- 
ness ; but a less number may organize temporarily, 



ORIGINAL CONSTITUTION. 123 

adjourn from day to day, and compel the attendance of 
absent members. 

Art. XXIII. [No person of foreign birth shall 
be entitled to vote, or shall be eligible to office, unless 
he shall have resided within the jurisdiction of the 
United States for two years subsequent to his naturali- 
zation, and shall be otherwise qualified, according to 
the constitution and laws of this commonwealth : pro- 
vided, that this amendment shall not affect the rights 
which any person of foreign birth possessed at the time 
of the adoption thereof; and, provided, further, that 
it shall not affect the rights of any child of a citizen of 
the United States, born during the temporary absence 
of the parent therefrom.] 

Art. XXIV. Any vacancy in the senate shall be 
filled by election by the people of the unrepresented 
district, upon the order of a majority of the senators 
elected. 

Art. XXV. In case of a vacancy in the council, 
from a failure of election, or other cause, the senate 
and house of representatives shall, by concurrent vote, 
choose some eligible person from the people of the dis- 
trict wherein such vacancy occurs, to fill that office. 
If such vacancy shall happen when the legislature is 
not in session, the governor, with the advice and con- 
sent of the council, may fill the same by appointment 
of some eligible person. 

Art. XXVI. The twenty-third article of the 
articles of amendment of the constitution of this com- 



124 ORIGINAL CONSTITUTION. 

monwealth, which is as follows, to wit: "No person 
of foreign birth shall be entitled to vote, or shall be 
eligible to office, unless he shall have resided within 
the jurisdiction of the United States for two years sub- 
sequent to his naturalization, and shall be otherwise 
qualified, according to the constitution and laws of 
this commonwealth : provided, that this amendment 
shall not affect the rights which any person of foreign 
birth possessed at the time of the adoption thereof; 
and provided ', further ', that it shall not affect the rights 
of any child of a citizen of the United States, born 
during the temporary absence of the parent therefrom," 
is hereby wholly annulled. 

Art. XXVII. So much of article two of chapter 
six of the constitution of this commonwealth as relates 
to persons holding the office of president, professor, or 
instructor of Harvard College, is hereby annulled. 

Art. XXVIII. No person having served in the 
army or navy of the United States in time of war, and 
having been honorably discharged from such service, 
if otherwise qualified to vote, shall be disqualified there- 
for on account of being a pauper ; or, if a pauper, be- 
cause of the non-payment of a poll tax. 



PARTS OF ORIGINAL LEFT OUT OF 
ADJUSTED CONSTITUTION. 






U2 <? 



1 1 1 



1 2 1 



1 2 



1 2 2 



12 2 



1 


2 


1 


2 


1 


2 


1 


2 


1 


2 


1 


2 


1 


2 



Preamble : because all its truths are in 
Rights of Inhabitants 

Public worship, protestant teachers, 
must be supported : whole article 
replaced by amendment 11 ... 

Legislature to meet and adjourn in 
May : time changed by am. 10 

Forty councillors and senators : re- 
placed by am. 13, then 21, 22, 16, 25 

Election first Monday in April : cor- 
rected by am. 10, then 15 . . . . 

Property and votership: corrected by 
am. 3, 20, 28 

Returns, last Wednesday in May : cor- 
rected by am. 10 . .• 

Plantations: none in state . . . 

Last Wednesday, majority : corrected 
by am. 10, 14 

Provided nevertheless: fulfilled in 1780 

Last Wednesday in May : corrected 
by am. 10 

Majority elects : plurality, am. 14 . 

Senate vacancies : replaced by am. 24 

Property and senatorship: replaced 

by am. 13, last clause 

11* 



&0 • % 

& sis 



1 31 



3 


43 


21 


4 


29 


28 


31 


2 


31 


6 


33 


3 


33 


22 


35 


2 


35 


6 


37 


1 


37 




37 
37 


17 
4 



126 



PARTS OF ORIGINAL LEFT OUT 



12 5 

12 9 

13 2 

13 3 



1 3 5 
1 3 9 



2 

2 

2 

2 
2 



1 2 

1 3 

1 3 

1 3 

1 3 



2 15 



2 


1 5 


2 


1 9 


2 


1 10 


2 


1 10 



2 1 10 



2 1 10 

2 2 1 

2 2 1 

2 3 1 

2 3 2 



Residence and senatorship : replaced 
by am. 22 

Senators, quorum : replaced by am. 22 

Representatives, ratios of polls : re- 
placed by am. 12, then 13, then 21 

Property, representativeship, voter- 
ship: part of article annulled by am. 
13 : most of it replaced by am. 21 . 

May election : Nov. instead, am. 15 

Representatives, quorum : article re- 
placed by am. 21 

Governor must hold to Christian reli- 
gion : requirement annulled by am. 7 

First Monday in April, election : cor- 
rected by am. 10, then 15 . . . . 

Last Wednesday in May : first Wed- 
nesday in Jan., am. 10, first part 

Majority elects: plurality, am. 14 . 

Governor, vacancy filled : replaced by 
am. 16, end; as in am. 25 ... 

Governor may dissolve legislature, or 
lengthen an adjournment: part an- 
nulled by am. 10 

Shall dissolve : annulled by am. 10 . 

Appointments: corrected by am. 17, 19 

Militia voters, ages : corrected by am. 5 

Militia, removals: replaced by am. 4; 
and by statutes, chap. 14, p. 159 

Officers of continental army and forts: 
fulfilled in revolution, and covered by 
chap. 2, sec. 1, art. 7 

Divisions of militia : replaced by codi- 
fied statutes, 1882, chap. 14 . . . 

Lieut, governor, religion : null by am. 7 

Lieut, governor, election, vacancy; 
parts replaced by am. 14, 16 . . 

Nine persons: corrected by am. 16 . 

Councillors, election : replaced by am. 
10, 13, 16 



39 5 

39 2 

41 17 



43 
43 


15 
3 


45 


3 


49 


2 


49 


1 


49 
49 


3 
1 


49 


8 


51 
53 
57 
57 


4 
3 
2 
1 



59 



59 5 

59 5 

65 1 

65 6 

67 1 

67 12 



OF ADJUSTED CONSTITUTION. 



127 



2 


3 


4 


2 


3 


7 


2 


3 


7 


2 
2 


3 
4 


7 
1 


3 





5 


4 








6 





1 


6 






1 

1 



6 


2 


6 


9 


6 


10 


Am 


4 


Am 


6 


Am. 


10 


Am. 


10 


Am. 


10 


Am. 


10 



Councillors, two from one district: 

repealed by am. 16 

Elections by legislature, adjourned : 
part repealed by am. 16 .... 

Vacancies, filling: part repealed by 
am. 21, 22, 16, 17, 25 ; and by statutes, 
chap. 8, sec. 16 and 17 .... 

Council, election: repealed by am. 16 

Bureau officers elected by legislature : 
part repealed by am. 17 . . . . 

Divorce ; fulfilled. See statutes, chap. 
150, sec. 5 

Delegates to congress : fulfilled: an- 
nulled by U. S. constitution, operative 
since June 21, 1788 

Oath on religion and property : an- 
nulled by am. 7 

Manner of oath : fulfilled Oct. 25, 1780 

Oath of allegiance : replaced by am. 6 

Oath of office : form for Quakers put in 

Offices not fitly held at once : art. re- 
cast with am. 8 in adjustment . . 

Officers of Harvard college not to sit 
in legislature : corrected by am. 27 

Officers of old government hold : ful- 
filled: new government in 1780 

Revision in 1795 J dead by limitation 

Secretary and treasurer, vacancies : 
replaced by am. 17 

Oath of allegiance : full form for Qua- 
kers put in: disjointed words dropped 

Election day, second Monday in Nov. : 
part replaced by am. 15 .... 

Last Wednesday in May, session day : 
first Wednesday in January put every 
where instead 

In force Oct. 1, 1831: fulfilled Jan. 4, 
1832 .... 

Annulling clause J dead by corrections 



69 2 
69 



69 

69 11 



71 
75 



2 
4 



75 11 



83 
83 
83 
87 


11 

8 
34 
11 


89 




89 


1 


93 
95 


18 
25 


101 


8 


103 


8 


107 


9 



108 7 

108 16 

109 3 



128 



HEADINGS OF ORIGINAL CONSTITUTION. 



Am. 11 

Am, 12 

Am. 13 

Am. 16 
Am. 21 

Am. 23 

Am. 26 
Am. 27 



Introduction 5 needless, for am. 11 is in 
place of art. 3 

Representatives : whole replaced by 
am. 13, and that by 21 .... 

Census, representatives, senators, 
councillors : see am. 21, 22, 16 

Council, vacancy: replaced by am. 25 

Census for 1857 , duplicate : fulfilled: 
census ordered in am. 22 ... . 

Foreign born, special residence of two 
years : annulled by am. 26 . . . 

Annuls am. 23 : no force: 23 left out 

Harvard college officers eligible to leg- 
islature : needless : annulled clause of 
disability dropped. See chap. 6, art. 2 



109 


3 


110 


70 


112 
116 


71 

7 


119 


12 


123 
123 


12 
15 



124 4 



HEADINGS OF ORIGINAL CONSTITUTION. 

Articles of Amendment p. 97 

Council, settling of elections 67 

Declaration of rights of inhabitants ... 3 

Delegates to congress . . . . . .-75 

Encouragement of literature . . . . 81 

Executive power ....... 47 

Frame of government . ... . . . 21 

General court . . . . . . . .21 

Governor . . . . . . . . 47 

House of representatives . . . . . .41 

Judiciary power . . . . . . 71 

Legislative power . . . . . . .21 

Lieutenant governor .....% 63 

Oaths, incompatibility, pecuniary qualif., commissions, 

writs, confirmation of laws (miscellaneous chapter) 83 
Preamble ........ 1 

Secretary, treasurer, commissary . . . . 71 

Senate ...*..... 29 

University at Cambridge . . . . . 75 



INDEX TO ADJUSTED CONSTITUTION. 



Abbreviations. Am., amdt., amendment ; ai\, 
art., article; CCl., council; CClr., councillor; eh.., 
Cliap., chapter; COIL., constitution; CO., county; ct., 
court; dist., district; gOV., governor; gOVt., govern- 
ment; lgt., legislature; lieut,, It. gOV., lieutenant 
governor; p., page; par., paragraph; TGp. 9 representa- 
tive; S., Sec, section; sen., senate; senr., senator. 
Singular and plural shortened alike ; others as commonly 
used. Code refers to book of codified public statutes, 
1882. Secretary, alone, secretary of state or common- 
wealth. Pages in light figures, paragraphs in heavy. 

Actions punishable by coexisting laws 

Address of both houses, to remove judges 

Adjutant general, appointed by governor 

Adjutants appointed by commanders of regiments . 

Affirmations by Quakers, instead of oaths . . 94 

Agriculture, arts, commerce, to encourage 

Allegiance, oath and affirmation ... 92 

Amendment to constitution, agreed to by two general cts., 

must have majority vote of people . . . 104 145 

Apportionment of councillors, eight districts . . .74 108 
Apportionment of rep. to voters in counties . . 46 65 

Apportionment of senators, forty districts . . . 33 53 
Armies, maintained only with consent of lgt. . . 14 18 
Arms, people keep and bear, for public defence . . 14 18 



Page. 


Par. 


16 


25 


82 


117 


66 


93 


66 


93 


129, 


130 


90 


125 


127, 


129 



130 



INDEX TO ADJUSTED CONSTITUTION. 



Arrest, on mesne process, rep. exempt 

Arrest, search, seizure, regulated, warrant definite . 

Attorney general, chosen yearly by people 

election determined by legislature . (56 77) 
must qualify within ten days, or office vacant 
not eligible unless in state latest five years . 

term begins third Wed. in Jan 

vacancy, during recess filled by gov. and ccl. , 
6< during session, lgt. fills on joint ballot . 

" from nonelection, or death, filled by lgt. 

from two highest candidates of the Nov. election 
Attorneys, dist., elected in the districts 
Auditor, election, facts as with atty. general . 

Back acting laws, unjust and oppressive . , . 

Bail or sureties, excessive, not to be required . 

Basis of senatorships and representativeships 

Bill, five session days old, law ..... 

Bills and resolves, governor's revisal .... 
law if not returned by gov. within five session days 

law if signed by governor 

money, originate in house of representatives 
objected, to, may be passed by yeas and nays of 
two thirds of each branch present . . 

Boards, public, quarterly reports to the governor 

Bribery or corruption disqualifies for office of trust 

Census of inhabitants and legal voters, in 1865, then every 

tenth year 

COtmt of voters apportions reps, and senrs. 

Cities of not less than twelve thousand inhabitants char- 
tered, if majority apply to legislature 
elections, in wards or otherwise .... 

Civil officers, election Tues. after first Mon. in Nov. 

plurality of votes elects 

Civil power above military . . 

Clerks of courts elected by people of counties 

Clerks of towns make records and returns of elections 

Colonial laws, not repugnant, continue in force . 



52 


72 


12 


15 


78 


114 


80 


114 


80 


114 


82 


114 


78 


114 


80 


114 


80 


114 


80 


114 


26 


39 


78 


114 


16 


25 


18 


27 


32 


43 


24 


36 


22 


35 


24 


36 


22 


35 


50 


69 


24 


35 


66 


96 


100 


138 


32 


43 


32 


43 


28 


40 


28 


40 


36 


49 


36 


48 


14 


18 


26 


39 


40 


55 


102 


142 



58 


82 


90 


125 


64 


90 


82 


117 


26 


39 


02 


140 



INDEX TO AD J CSTED CONSTITUTION , 131 

Commander in chief, governor is ... 
Commerce, agriculture, arts, encouraged 
Commissary general, appointed, according to statutes 
Commission officers, tenures in commissions 
Commissioners of insolvency, counties elect 
Commissions, gov. signs, secretary attests, sealed 
Congress, elections for; code book, 1882, p. 2, 3,.88. 

• members may not hold certain offices . . 98 184 

Constitution, adjusted, even pages, 2 to 106. 

amendment passes one legislature and the next, 

is voted by people, established by majority . 

parchment roll, secretary keeps .... 

printed in all editions of code .... 
Coroners, appointed by governor and ccl. 
Corruption or bribery disqualifies for office 
Council, acts as governor, absence of gov. and lieut. gov. 

register may be called for by either house 

resolutions and advices, recorded, signed 
Councillor districts, eight, each of five senr. dist. 
Councillors, eight, elected yearly .... 

election of, steps, as in choice of gov. . 74 

eligible, having dwelt latest five years in state . 

property requirement, none . . . 

quorum, five 

rank among executive officers, next to lieut. gov. . 
take oath of office in presence of both houses 
term of office, one year 

Vacancies of, filled from districts by lgt. : after ad- 
journment, by gov. and ccl 

County officers, election 26 

Court, superior, judges not to hold certain offices 
supreme, judges can not hold other offices . 

" give opinions to sen., house, gov. and ccl. 

M hold during good behavior 

Courts, administer oaths 

Clerks, elected by people of counties . 
established by legislature . . . . 
probate, provisions for holding 

M registers elected by people of counties 



104 


145 


106 


146 


106 


146 


62 


85 


100 


138 


78 


112 


78 


111 


78 


111 


74 


108 


74 


108 


108, 


110 


74 


108 


36 


50 


72 


106 


74 


107 


94 


131 


22 


34 


76 


109 


26 


39 


98 


134 


98 


134 


84 


118 


20 


30 


26 


38 


26 


39 


26 


38 


84 


120 


26 


39 



132 INDEX TO ADJUSTED CONSTITUTION. 

Crime and offences, prosecutions regulated . . . 10 12 

proved, near where they happen . . . . 12 14 

Debate, free, reason 16 22 

Declaration of rights of inhabitants . . .2 1 

Departments of govt., each to its own duties . . 20 31 

Dispatches, forwarded quickly to governor . . . 68 97 

District attorneys, people of districts elect . . . 26 39 

Districts, cclr., eight, each of five senr. districts . . 74 108 

rep., commissioners in counties establish . . 46 65 
Senr., forty, each made of adjacent territory, and of 

a common number of voters 38 53 

Dividing board, county, certified to .... 46 65 

Duty of civil officers for all time 90 125 

Each governmental body to its own duties ... 20 31 

Educational interests cherished . . . . . 90 125 
Election, of representatives, failing, another meeting on 

fourth Monday of November . . . . 36 49 

Of state and county officers, yearly, Tuesday after 

first Monday in November 36 49 

returns 40 55 

Elections, free 8 9 

in cities, manner given by legislature . . . 28 40 

Of civil officers, by plurality of votes . . . 36 48 

Enacting of laws, style established .... 104 144 

Equality and natural rights of all men .... 2 1 

Estates, valuation, taken once in ten years . . . 32 42 

Executive, forbidden to be legislator and judge . . 20 31 

Felony and treason, lgt. not a court to try for . 18 26 

Fines, excessive, shall not be imposed . . . . 18 27 

Frame of government . . .• . . . • 20 32 

Freedom of religious societies 4 3 

Speech, and debate in legislature . . . 16 22 

Freehold, not required for legislator nor councillor .36 50 

required for governor 54 76 

" " lieut. governor . 70 102 

Friends, called Quakers, affirm .... 94 129, 130 



INDEX TO ADJCJSTED CONSTITUTION. 133 

Fundamental principles, frequently recurred to . . 14 19 

General court, assembles yearly first Wed. of Jan., at other 
times if necessary, and at call of gov. and ccl. 
certain officers shall not have seats in . 
Conviction of bribery disqualifies to sit in 
dissolved day before first Wed. of Jan. . 
elects major generals, houses acting apart . 

empowered to charter cities 

" s< declare choice of gov., It. gov., cclr. 

" " prescribe for election of co. officers 

and district attorneys 

formed of two branches, senate and house 
freedom of speech and debate in 
governor and ccl. may adjourn if houses disagree . 
judicial officers removed upon address of . 
may be adjourned, upon its request, by gov. and ccl. 
M constitute and erect courts .... 
impose taxes for public service 
increase property requirement for some officers 102 
make wholesome and reasonable laws 
provide for choice of officers, tell duties 
not a court to try for felony nor treason . 
session in other than usual place, from sickness 
should sit often, redress grievances, make laws 
travelling expenses of members, one trip, paid 
Good humor countenanced and inculcated 
Government by people, free, sovereign, independent 

Government, objects 

Governmental year begins first Wed. in Jan. 
Governor and council, appoint all judicial officers, notaries, 
coroners : nominations made seven days before ap- 
pointments 62 

examine election returns . . , (42 56) 
five councillors a quorum . .. . (56 78) 

may adjourn lgt., when requested, and convene it . 
'* " " when houses disagree, or direct 

session in safe place to avoid sickness . . 56 80 

12 



22 


34 


98 


134 


100 


138 


22 


34 


64 


89 


26 


40 


76 


110 


26 


39 


20 


33 


16 


22 


58 


81 


82 


117 


56 


80 


26 


38 


30 


41 


102 


139 


28 


41 


30 


41 


18 


26 


56 


80 


16 


23 


48 


67 


92 


125 


4 


4 


6 


7 


22 


34 


I 85,86 


76 


110 


76 


110 


56 


80 



134 



INDEX TO ADJUSTED CONSTITUTION. 



freehold of 



it 



may fill vacancy in ccl. in vacation of lgt. 
may, for disrespect, imprison for thirty days 
may pardon offenders, not before conviction . 

" punish for disrespect 

*' remove judicial officers, on address of both 

houses . 

may require attendance of secretary of state 
power of ... , 

Governor, appoints adjutant general .... 
Commander in chief of army and navy 
election determined by legislature 
limitation, acts within state, except 
may call together cclr. at any time 

'•■ not hold certain other offices . 
must have dwelt in the state 7 yr. : 

$3495.14 . ' * 

president of council, without a vote in 
salaried, honorably .... 
signs all commissions 
takes oath of office in presence of sen. 

term of office 

title, His Excellency 

vacancy of, and of It. gov., council acts 

" powers exercised by It. gov. 

veto power . . . . . . 

Harvard college, overseers named : lgt. may alter govt, for 

advantage of college 90 

powers, privileges, gifts confirmed 
Have the body, person before the judge : privilege of writ 

stopped by lgt. only, and only in straits . 
Hereditary offices, absurd and unnatural 
Honesty, sincerity and other virtues encouraged . 
House of representatives, adjourns for but two days 

arrest of members limited ..... 

Chooses its officers, makes its rules . 

Commissioners to divide counties into rep, dists., 

towns and city wards not divided , . . . 46 



and house 



76 


109 


52 


73 


60 


84: 


52 


73 


82 


117 


82 


116 


56 


78 


66 


93 


58 


82 


76 


110 


60 


83 


56 


78 


70 


101 


54 


76 


56 


79 


68 


98 


102 


140 


94 


131 


22 


34 


52 


75 


78 


112 


72 


104 


22 


35 


90 


124 


86 


122 


104 


143 


6 


6 


92 


125 


50 


70 


52 


72 


50 


71 



65 



INDEX TO ADJUSTED CONSTITUTION. 135 

cost of travel, one trip a session, paid by state . 48 67 

districting board for each co. must have secretary's 

certificate of county* s number of rep. . 46 65 

elected yearly, people instruct members . .16 20 

election failing, another meeting 4th Mom in Nov. 36 49 

election, Tues. after first Mom of Nov. • .36 49 

enters governor's objections on records . . 24 35 

impeachments all made by house . . . 50 68 

may fine towns not choosing members . . 48 66 

** imprison for disrespect, 30 days . . .52 73 

" require attendance of secretary of state . 82 116 

£( opinions of supreme judges . . 84 118 

** try for disrespect by committee, at will . 52 74 

member must have dwelt in dist. last year before 

election, membership ceases if he quit state . . 48 65 

no district elects more than three rep. . . 48 65 

Originates all money bills, but senate amends . 50 69 

people may instruct members . . . . 16 20 

privileges of members 52 72 

qualifications of a member .... 48 65 

quorum, a hundred members - . . . 44 64 

240 members .... . 44 63 

Impeachments, made by house, tried by senate : limitation 

of sentence: person convicted liable to indictment . 42 61 

Incompatible offices 96 133 thro. 137 

Inhabitant, word defined . . . . r . . 32 44 

Inhabitants, census, every 10th year after 1865 . . 32 43 

Insolvency., commissioners elected by counties . . 26 3.9 

Instruction of representatives 1 6 20 

Judges of eourts, may not hold certain other offices . 98 134 
Judges of supreme court, give opinions: governor and 

council, senate or house may require . . . 82 116 

hold during good behavior, salaried 20 30; 70 99; 82 117 

Shall not hold other offices 96 133 

Judicial department, its own powers only „ . . 20 31 
Judicial officers, appointed by gov, and ccL ; nominations 

j&ade seven days before appointment * . . 62 SB 



136 INDEX TO ADJUSTED CONSTITUTION. 

hold, during goad behavior, except 
removable by governor, upon address of Igt. • 

Jury, in criminal cases . . . . . . .10 

trial by, right secured 

Justices, peace, hold but seven years : reappointment 

Laws, every person's remedy in, -for injuries 

power to suspend, only in legislature 

provincial, and old, not repugnant, held in force 

retroactive, forbidden as unjust 
Legislative department, not executive nor judicial . 
Legislature, general court, not a criminal court 
Liberty of press, essential to security of freedom . 
Lieut, governor acting gov., chair of gov. vacant 

election yearly in Nov. : title, His Honor : property 

and residence same as for governor .... 

oath of office, in presence of both houses . 

Only his lieut. governorship . . .72 105 ; 

president of council, in absence of gov. 

term of office 

Limit of offices allowed gov. and others . . .96 133, 137 
Literature and sciences encouraged .... 90 125 

Magistrates and courts shall not be cruel . 
Magistrates and other officers accountable to people 
Major generals, electing, sen. and house vote apart . 

may appoint their aids 
Martial law, only for troops, seamen, militia in service 
Meetings, to divide counties, first Tues. in Aug. . 
Military power, subordinate to civil authority 
Militia, brigadiers, field officers elect .... 

Captains and subalterns, companies elect 

field officers, captains and subalterns elect 

major generals, senate and house elect . 

minors vote in company elections 

mode of electing officers fixed by standing laws 

officers may be removed, code, p. 159, s. 64 

shall not be marched out of state, except 



82 


117 


82 


117 


10 


IB 


12 


16 


84 


119 


10 


11 


16 


21 


02 


142 


16 


25 


20 


31 


18 


26 


14 


17 


72 


104 


70 


102 


94 


131 


96 


133 


70 


103 


22 


34 



18 


27 


6 


5 


64 


89 


66 


93 


18 


29 


46 


65 


14 


18 


64 


87 


62 


87 


62 


87 


64 


89 


62 


87 


64 


88 


64 


91 


60 


sa 



INDEX TO ADJUSTED CONSTITUTION. 



137 



Staff officers, appointments 66 93 

Vacancies from refusal to elect, gov. and ccl. fill .64 92 

Money, from treasury, only by warrant of gov., except 66 95 

in con., silver, at six and eight pence an ounce . 102 139 

bills originate in house of representatives . .50 69 

Moneys, for public schools, not for use of sects . . 92 126 

Moral obligations of lawgivers and magistrates . .14 19 



Name of state . 20 32 

Naval officers . . . 66 94 

Notaries public, gov. appoints and may remove . . 62 86 



92 



write 



Oaths and affirmations, administered by courts 

forms 

Friends may affirm 

Of religious adherence, tests, abolished 

Only of allegiance and office required 

taken by all civil and military officers 
Objects of government .... 
Offences and crimes, prosecutions regulated 
Office, all qualified persons equally eligible 

no person eligible unless he can read and 

Of trust, bribery disqualifies for 
Officers and magistrates accountable to people 

Civil, lgt. provides for naming and settling 
6e people may change .... 

judicial, hold during good behavior, except . 

militia, election, appointment . 

M removal 

removable by gov. on address of both houses 

tenures, expressed in commissions 
Offices, forbidden to gov., It. gov., judges 

incompatible 96 

Only his judgship 

Organization of government, without delay 



. 26 38 

127; 94 128 

. 94 129 

96 132 

. 94 131 

92 127 

. 6 
10 



36 



7 
12 

9 
47 



. 100 138 

6 5 

. 30 41 

8 8 

. 82 117 

. 62 87, 93 

. 64 91 

82 117 

. 82 117 

96 133 

133 thro. 137 

84 121 

. 76 110 



Pardons, gov. grants, not before conviction . 
People, have sole fight to govern themselves 
12* 



62 
4 



84 
4 



138 



INDEX TO ADJUSTED CONSTITUTION. 



9; 



may assemble to consult for common good, instruct 

representatives, petition legislature 

may keep and bear arms for public defence 
Person and property, remedy in laws for injuries 
Petition, right ,.#.*... 
Plurality, of offices ,..,,. 

Of votes, elects all civil officers 
Political year, begins first Wednesday of January 
President of council, gov. : otherwise It. gov. 56 
Press, liberty of, essential to freedom . 
Private property for public uses, compensation 
Privileges, common to all citizens .... 
Probate courts, judges forbidden other offices 

provisions for holding 

registers, elected by people of counties 
Property qualifications, may be increased by lgt. . 

partially abolished 

Prosecutions for crimes and offences regulated 
Protection and contribution, correlative . 
Provincial laws, not repugnant, allowed force 
Public boards, military, report quarterly to governor 

Officers, persons qualified, equally eligible for 
" right of people to change 

religious worship, right of 
Punishments, cruel and unusual, forbidden 



14 


2® 


14 


IS 


10 


11 


16 


20 


100 


187 


36 


4:8 


22 


34 


70 


103 


14 


17 


8 


10 


6 


6 


98 


134 


84 


120 


26 


39 


102 


139 


36 


50 


10 


12 


8 


10 


102 


142 


66 


96 


8 


9 


8 


8 


2 


2 


18 


27 



Quakers, make affirmation . ' . . . . 94 129, 130 

Qualification, property ; cclr., rep., senr. exempt . . 36 50 

for holding some offices, lgt. may increase . • . 102 139 

ofgovernorandlt.gov. . . . . 54 76; 70 102 

partially abolished 33 50 

Qualifications, moral, of officers and magistrates . .14 19 

Of councillors ..... 74 108 

" governor 54 76 

" It. governor (76) 70 102 

4€ representatives 48 65 

4< secretary, treasurer, auditor, atty. general . 82 114 

" senators . . 38 53 



INDEX TO ADJUSTED CONSTITUTION. 



139 



Of voters 34 45, 46, 47 

Qualify within ten days, bureau officers . . . . 80 114 
Quartermasters, commanders of regiments name . 66 93 

Quarters in houses, owners' consent . . . . 18 28 

Quorum of, council, five members . . . . 72 106 

house, a hundred members 44 64 

senate, sixteen members . . . . 38 52 

Head and write, voter and officer must be able . . 36 47 

Records of commonwealth in office of secretary . . 82 116 
Records of ccl., resolutions and advice signed . . 78 111 

Registers of probate, chosen by people of counties . 26 39 
Religious denominations, equal protection ... 4 3 

societies, elect pastors or religious teachers . 4 3 

" membership defined .... 4 3 

Remedies by recourse to law, free, complete, prompt . 10 11 
Removals, in militia; code, p. 159, s. 64. 

of judges, by governor and ccl. . . . .82 117 

" notaries 62 86 

Representatives, house 44 63 

in congress ; code, 1882, p. 2, 88. 
Residence for, councillorship, five years 

governorship, seven years* . 

lieut. governorship, seven years . (54 

representativeship, one year 

secretaryship, bureau officerships, five years 

senatorship, five years .... 

voter ship, right to vote, one year 

Resolves and bills 

Retroactive laws, unjust and oppressive 

Returns of votes 40 45' 48 65*. 54 77; 74 

quarterly, of military boards and officers 
Rights, declaration 



74 

54 

70 
. 48 

82 
. 38 

34 
35, 36, 37 

16 25 

108; 80 114 

. 66 96 

2 1 thro. 31 



76) 



22 



108 
76 

102 
65 

114 
53 
45 



Sailors and soldiers, veterans, vote even if paupers 

Salaries, enlarged if insufficient . 

Salary, fixed and honorable, justice's . . 20 

Stated, and honorable, for governor 
School monevs, not for sectarian schools 



30; 



34 
70 
70 
68 
92 



46 

100 

99 

98 
126 



140 



INDEX TO ADJUSTED CONSTITUTION. 



Seal of commonwealth on all commissions . . .102 140 

Search, seizure, arrest, regulated . . . . . 12 15 
Secretary of commonwealth, attends gov. and eel., senate 

and house, as required . . . . . . 82 116 

attests all commissions 102 140 

Certifies no. of rep. to county districting boards . 46 65 
Chosen, election, eligibility, qualifying, term, va- 
cancy, same as for attorney general ... 78 114 
deputies, appoints, accountable for . . .82 116 
records of state kept in his office . . .82 116 
Sectarian schools shall not use public money . . .92 126 

Sects alike in law .4 3 

Select men preside at town meetings . . 40 55$ 54 77 

Self government, right of . . . . . .4 4 

Senate, adjourns for two days, not longer . . . 42 59 

Chooses its officers, makes its rules . . . 42 60 

first branch of legislature . . . . . 38 51 

forty members 38 51 

punishes for offences 52 73 

quorum, sixteen members 38 52 

records gov's, objections to bill or resolve . 24 35 

requires attendance of secretary of state . . 82 116 

" opinions of supreme judges . . 84 118 

tries all impeachments 42 61 

" offenders by committee, or at will . . 52 74 
vacancy, people fill on senate's order . . . 42 58 
Senatorial districts, forty, adjacent territory, equal num- 
bers of voters . . . . . . . 38 53 

Senators, chosen yearly . . . . . . . 38 54 

final judges of elections and returns of senators 42 57 

qualifications 38 53 

returns for, examined by gov. and ccl. . . .42 56 

summonses, sent to members chosen . . 42 56 

SWOrn before sitting at impeachment . . .44 61 

try impeachments 42 61 

Senatorships, apportioned upon lawful voters . . . 38 53 
Senators in congress, see U. S. con., art. 1, sec. 3 ; Mass. 
code book, 1882, p. 3. 



INDEX TO ADJUSTED CONSTITUTION. 



141 



Sheriffs, elected by people of counties 
Silver, six shillings and eight penee an ounce 

Society, religious, rights 

Soldier, quartered in a house, owner's consent 
Soldiers and sailors, veteran, vote even if paupers 

Solicitor general 

Standing armies, kept only by consent of lgt. . 
State election day, Tues. after first Mon. in Nov. 
State's title, The Commonwealth of Massachusetts 
Summonses, gov. sends to persons elected . 
Supreme judges, forbidden certain other offices 

give opinions to senate, house, gov. and ccl. 

hold during good behavior, salaried 
Sureties or bail, excessive, forbidden . 
Suspend laws, only legislature can . 



Taxation founded on consent of people . . 8 10 ; 
Taxes, may be imposed by legislature 

valuation of property for, once in ten years 
Tenures of officers expressed in commissions 
Term of gov., lieut. gov., cclr., one year . 
Tests, religious proofs, not required 
Title of governor, His Excellency . 

lieut. governor, His Honor 

State, Commonwealth of Massachusetts 
Town clerk, records and returns of elections 

meetings, select men preside at 
Towns, and wards of cities, not divided 

fined for neglect to choose representatives 
Travelling expenses, one trip a session, paid by govt. . 
Treason and felony, lgt. shall not try men for . 
Treasurer, election, eligibility, qualifying, term, vacancy, 

as of attorney general ....'. 

five years together, most allowed him 
Treasury, gov's, warrant alone draws money, except . 
Trial by jury, guaranteed, except in army and navy 

right secured 

sacred right 12 



26 


39 


102 


139 


4 


3 


18 


28 


34 


46 


62 


85 


14 


18 


36 


49 


20 


32 


76 


110 


84 


121 


84 


118 


20 


30 


18 


27 


16 


21 


; ie 


24 


30 


41 


32 


42 


82 


117 


22 


34 


96 


132 


52 


75 


70 


102 


20 


32 


40 


55 


40 


55 


38 


53 


48 


66 


48 


67 


18 


26 


78 


114 


82 


115 


66 


95 


10 


13 


10 


12 


12 


16 



142 INDEX TO ADJUSTED CONSTITUTION. 

Trial, in house, at will of body 52 74 

Two thirds of each house cancel veto . . . . 24 35 

University at Cambridge 84 122 

Vacancy, in ccl., senate and house fill : lgt. not in session, 

gov. and ccl. fill 

militia, election failing, gov. and ccl. fill 
Of gov. and lieut. gov., ccl. acts instead 
" governor, lieut. gov. takes the place 
" secretary, treasurer, auditor, attorney general 
senate, filled by people on order of senators elected 

Valuation of estates, taken once in ten years . 

Veteran paupers, not disfranchised . . . 

Veto power of governor 

Virtues inculcated 

Voter, any, a public servant 

Voters, basis of representativeships in counties . 

-basis of senatorships 

CdlLSUS of, I860, then every tenth year 

male citizens, 21 yr. old, in state one year, town six 

months, taxed for county or state within two latest 

years or exempted, write their names, read con. in 

English, not paupers unless veterans . , 34 45 5 46 5 47 

qualifications, at state elections . . 34 45 5 46, 47 

some not disqualified by pauperism ... 34 46 

Votes, highest number elects each civil officer . .36 48 

returns, 40 55$ 48 65; 54 77$ 70 102$ 74 108$ 80 114 

Warning time, election 

Weapons, keep and bear for common defence . 
Worship, public, all men's right .... 
Writing and reading, for voting and holding office . 
Writ of have the body, person before the judge . 
Writs, in name of commonwealth, with seal of court, test 

of first justice, signed by clerk . . . . 102 141 

Year, political, begins first Wednesday of Jan, . . 22 34 



76 


109 


64 


92 


78 


112 


72 


104 


80 


114 


42 


58 


32 


42 


34 


46 


22 


35 


90 


125 


8 


9 


46 


65 


38 


53 


32 


43 



40 


54 


14 


18 


2 


2 


36 


47 


104 


143 







- 






&y 




027 272 ma 



